Premium
Recreation and Participation: Testing the Political Impact of Social Interaction*
Author(s) -
Ikeda Ken'ichi,
Kobayashi Tetsuro,
Richey Sean
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00849.x
Subject(s) - recreation , politics , survey data collection , political science , test (biology) , social relation , sociology , social psychology , psychology , social science , law , biology , ecology , statistics , mathematics
Objectives We research the political impact of human social interaction. Some scholars suggest that recreational or other informal interaction may promote political participation. Informal recreational interaction is proposed to be beneficial because it increases activity in more serious political participation. Methods To test these ideas, we use new nationally representative survey data from seven E ast A sian nations using P oisson regression models. Results We show that informal social interaction and nonpolitical voluntary activity do increase political participation. Conclusions Even though the recreation may begin as a nonpolitical activity, we show that it may spark later political participation.