Interest through social involvement : the impact of socialtrust and collective identification on political interest

Iglič, Hajdeja (author), Van Rossem, Ronan (author)

Political interest is the basis for an individual’s informed and con-sistent engagement with politics, making it essential to understandits origins. In this article we focus on a largely understudied factor:social involvement, which is conceptualized in terms of social trustand collective identification, both reflecting individuals’ attachmentto others. The primary aim is to explore the causal mechanismsthrough which social involvement shapes political interest. We pro-pose three explanatory mechanisms formulated in terms of socialempathy, common good, and political efficacy. Drawing on datafrom the 2017 European Values Survey, our analysis providesrobust empirical support for the common good and empathymechanisms. The findings suggest that social trust and collectiveidentification enhance political interest by reinforcing the perceivedvalue and significance of political involvement. The efficacy argu-ment, however, received no support. Overall, the results underscorethe significant role of trust in unfamiliar others and cosmopolitanidentification.

• Language: English
• Keywords: political interest, importance of politics, social involvement, social trust, collective identification
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 21.08.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 376–402
• Numbering: Vol. 55, no. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179413
• UDC: 323.2
• ISSN on article: 0020-7659
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268339715
• Publication date in RUL: 13.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of sociology
• Shortened title: Int. j. sociol.
• Publisher: M.E. Sharpe, etc.
• ISSN: 0020-7659
• COBISS.SI-ID: 16396381

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0166-2018
• Name: Upravljanje omrežij javnega in zasebnega sektorja