TY - JOUR
T1 - Life satisfaction and the conventionality of political participation
T2 - The moderation effect of post-materialist value orientation
AU - Cheng, Edmund W
AU - Chung, Hiu-Fung
AU - Cheng, Hoi-wa
PY - 2023/3
Y1 - 2023/3
N2 - Does life satisfaction (LS) predict people’s likelihood of participating in politics? Although the relationship between LS and political participation (PP) has been widely debated, its correlation and causality remain inconclusive. We contribute to the literature by exploring the moderation effect of post-materialist value orientation. By conceptualizing the conventionality of PP as a continuous spectrum, we suggest a new typology beyond the dichotomous understanding. Seventh-wave data from the World Values Survey in Hong Kong indicate that individuals who are more dissatisfied with their lives are more likely to engage in radicalized actions such as strikes and boycotts. This negative relationship is particularly strong among people with a post-materialist orientation, yet LS is not related to electoral participation and normalized actions, including peaceful demonstrations commonly regarded as ‘unconventional’ in previous studies. Furthermore, the results of propensity score matching reinforce the causal claim that LS predicts radicalized action negatively. © The Author(s) 2021
AB - Does life satisfaction (LS) predict people’s likelihood of participating in politics? Although the relationship between LS and political participation (PP) has been widely debated, its correlation and causality remain inconclusive. We contribute to the literature by exploring the moderation effect of post-materialist value orientation. By conceptualizing the conventionality of PP as a continuous spectrum, we suggest a new typology beyond the dichotomous understanding. Seventh-wave data from the World Values Survey in Hong Kong indicate that individuals who are more dissatisfied with their lives are more likely to engage in radicalized actions such as strikes and boycotts. This negative relationship is particularly strong among people with a post-materialist orientation, yet LS is not related to electoral participation and normalized actions, including peaceful demonstrations commonly regarded as ‘unconventional’ in previous studies. Furthermore, the results of propensity score matching reinforce the causal claim that LS predicts radicalized action negatively. © The Author(s) 2021
KW - Hong Kong
KW - Life satisfaction
KW - political participation
KW - post-materialism
KW - protest
KW - World Values Survey
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106436603&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85106436603&origin=recordpage
U2 - 10.1177/01925121211006567
DO - 10.1177/01925121211006567
M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal
SN - 0192-5121
VL - 44
SP - 157
EP - 177
JO - International Political Science Review
JF - International Political Science Review
IS - 2
ER -