Running

head: INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

CCTP-771 Statistically Methodology

Data Analysis Project:
Internet Use, Age, and Education Indicators of Political Engagement

Elaine Yinan Cai

Author Note
Elaine Yinan Cai
Culture, Communication, and Technology, Georgetown University
Contact: yc553@georgetown.edu

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

Internet Use, Age, and Education Indicators of Political Engagement

From the radio to the television to the internet, new media of each generation were
changing the way people obtaining political information. In the era of Web 2.0, the internet is
changing the landscape of media as well as reshaping peoples political life. Thus, an
increasingly important question becomes whether or not the use of internet can increase, or at
least predict, peoples political engagement.
For many decades, younger generations have been accused of apathy and detachment
from political activitiesthe voter turnout among younger adults (18-30) is low (Davis, 2014;
Owen, 2004); also, they participate in less political activities (Pew Research Center, 2014a).
However, the younger generation today (Millennial generation) are digital natives. They
are the most avid users of the internet, mobile technology and social media (Pew Research
Center, 2014a). Evidence also shows that young voters have become more involved in
election campaigns since 2004 because the internet technology provided novel and accessible
outlets for disseminating information(Owen, 2008). If so, will the use of internet influence, or
increase younger peoples political engagement?
Besides, civic education, which helps people establish their partisan identification and
voting-related orientations, is a fundamental element of political socialization (Owen, 2004).
Hence, education can also be an influential factor of peoples political engagement. Can
peoples education or partisan identification effects their political engagement and political
attitudes? Republicans or Democrats, highly educated or lower educated people, whose
political views are more extreme? These are the questions this paper wants to answer.
This research is aimed at exploring the relationship between peoples internet use,

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

partisan identification, education, age, and their political engagement and political attitudes.
Secondary Analysis was conducted in this paper. The dataset used by this paper was retrieved
from Pew Research Center, collected from the Civic Engagement Survey 2012, which was
a part of the Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life Project.

Literature Review
With the more and more easy access to the internet and the proliferating internet users in
recent years, new media forms based on the internet, such as online news, social media, video
sharing websites, etc., became the research objects of communication scholars. Especially,
researchers in political communication care about internets influence on peoples political
knowledge, political attitudes, and political behaviors.
Some studies suggest that the use of social media can increase political engagement,
which means there is causal relationship between the use of internet and the increase of
political engagement. Gil de Ziga (2014) asserts that news on social media has direct
effects on offline political participation and indirect effects on offline and online political
participation mediated via political expression. Zamora Medina and Zurutuza Munozs (2014)
quantitative research reveals that online campaigning can improve Spanishs political
engagementthe candidates use of social media, especially Twitter, improved the general
publics political engagement in the 2011 Spanish General Elections. Bryms study (2014)
also finds the use of social media encouraged people to become demonstrators in the 2011
Egyptian uprising. Likewise, Holt and colleges (2013) asserts the use of political social media
as well as the attention to political news in traditional media can increase political

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

engagement. Though the panel study conducted by Dimitrova et al. (2014) suggests that
social media and party websites only have limited effects on increasing political knowledge
and political participation, nevertheless, the study supports that reading online news leads to
higher political knowledge and political participation.
However, to infer causation, time ordering, covariation, and elimination of alternative
interpretations for the relationship are three requirements (Mill, 1843). Since most studies on
internet use and political engagement relied on cross-sectional surveys, they can only suggest
correlation instead of causation between internet use and political engagement (they failed to
show the the time ordering or eliminate alternative interpretations of the relationship). The
suty by Xenos, Vromen and Loader (2014) is one of this type of researches. They find a
strong, positive correlation between social media use and the political engagement among
young people in Australia, the USA, and the UK. Similarly, the quantitative research by
DiGrazia et al. (2013) reveals that the use of twitter is also an effective indicator of political
behavior the more tweets one posts, the more likeable this person will vote.
The data analyzed by this paper was collected based on a cross-sectional survey. Thus,
this research will only inspect the correlation between the independent variables (internet use,
party lean, demographic) and the dependent variables (political engagement and political
attitude). To explore the effects on political engagement of internet use or education, further
panel studies or experiments are needed.
Research questions in this paper fall into three parts. The first part explores the
relationship between the use of the internet and peoples political engagement, political
attitude. The paper proposes that people who use internet have higher political engagement

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

than people who dont use the internet or use the internet less (H1). Using more internet
indicates higher frequency of discussing politics (H2) and more participation in offline
political activities (H3). This study also hypothesizes that people who use more internet hold
extreme political attitudes (H4).
The second part focuses on peoples party affiliation (/ partisan identification/ party lean)
and peoples political engagement. The researcher believes that political engagement of
different parties is not significant different with each other (which also means there is no
correlation between peoples party lean and their political engagement) (H5). But the paper
conjectures that Republicans hold more extreme political attitudes that Democrats (H6).
The third part probes into the relationship between peoples sex, age, education, income,
and their political engagement together with political attitudes. The paper posits that age and
education are two important factors influencing peoples political engagement and attitudes;
younger adults are less likely to get engaged in politics (H7). More specifically, younger
adults discuss politics at a lower frequency (H7A), take part in less offline political activities
(H7B), and have a lower registration rate (H7C). Besides, the paper proposes that younger
adults hold relatively radical political attitudes, which are either extreme conservative or
extreme liberal (H8). On the other hand, highly educated people are more engaged in politics
(H9), and their political attitudes are more moderate (H10).

Method
Dataset and Sample
The data was collected by Pew Research Center as a part of the Pew Research Centers

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

Internet & American Life Project. The cross-sectional survey conducted from July 16 to
August 7 in 2012 by random digit dialing. Both landline (n=1,353) and cellphone (n=900)
users were interviewed (total n=2,253).
In total, 2,253 people participated in the survey. The number of female (1,198) and male
(1,055) participants are nearly the same. But there are more elderly people (61 and above,
n=798) responding to the survey than young (18-30, 392) and middle-aged people (31-45,
n=398; 46-60, n=672). The participants distribute evenly in the three subcategories of
education: 38.8% were high school graduates or had education under high school level
(n=874); 28.5% of them had some college (n=643), and 32.2% received college or higher
education. 892 peoples family income was less than $40,000 in 2011; 675 respondents had
an annual family income between $40,001 and $100,000, and only 340 participants annual
family income was higher than $100,000.
Definitions and Measures:
There are basically 5 groups of variables in this paper: internet use, party lean,
demographics (including sex, age, education, income), political engagement, and political
attitude.
Internet use indicates peoples usage of internet. Two survey questions constitute the
index internet usedo you use the internet, at least occasionally? (variable name:
recintuse) and do you send or receive email, at least occasionally? (variable name:
recemail). In these two questions, no is coded as 1, yes coded as 2. The score of the
index ranges from 2 to 4 (2 items averaged scale, Cronbachs = .856, M = 3.55, SD = .78).
Party lean shows peoples political party affiliation or party identification, suggesting

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

whether people lean to be Republicans (conservative), Independents (neutral/ moderate), or

Democrats (liberal). 9 items compose this index. Questions in the survey not only asked
peoples party identification directly, but also reflected respondents partisan affiliation
indirectly by asking their attitudes towards specific political issues. Researchers specifically
asked: do you agree that the economy works best when the government stays out of the way
and lets people get ahead on their own? (variable name: q3e), do you agree that the
government should see to it that everybody who wants to work can find a job? (variable
name: jobguarantee), do you agree that the government should work to substantially reduce
the income gap between rich and poor? (variable name: reduceincomegap), do you agree
the government should: reduce spending, even if it means fewer services; keep spending at
current levels, or provide more services, even if it means increased spending? (variable
name: q4a), to what extent do you think abortion should be legal? (variable name: abortion),
do you strongly oppose, oppose, favor, or strongly favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to
marry legally? (variable name: gaymarriage), if the 2012 presidential election were being
held TODAY and the candidates were Mitt Romney, the Republican, and Barack Obama, the
Democrat, who would you vote for? (variable name: recvote01), in politics today, do you
consider yourself a Republican, Democrat or Independent? (variable name: recparty), and
in general, would you describe your political views as very conservative, conservative,
moderate liberal, or very liberal? (variable name: IDEO) Variables q3e, jobguarantee,
reduceincomegap, abortion, and gaymarriage adopt 4-point scales; the scales of q4a
and recparty are 3-point; recvote is 2-point, and IDEO is 5-point. All these 9 variables
are recoded so that bigger scores indicate liberal political attitudes. For example, in

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

jobguarantee, 1 indicates that the respondent holds the most conservative standpoint
(Republicans viewpoint), while 4 represents the respondent holds the most liberal view
(Democrats view). Similarly, in q4a, value 1 indicates the respondent is prone to the
Republican, while value 3 indicates this person is more inclined to the Democrat (9 items
averaged scale, Cronbachs = .857, M = 21.36, SD = 6.21).
Variables in demographics include: sex (variable name: recsex), age (variable name:
recage), education, (variable name: recedu) and annual family income (variable name:
recincome). In recsex, female is coded as 1, male coded as 2. In recage, score 1 indicates
people who are 18 30 years old; 2 indicates 31-45 years-old persons; 3 means 46-60
years-old persons, and 4 denotes people who are 61 and above. In recedu, high school or
less is recoded as 1, some college is recoded as 2, and college and grad is recoded as 3.
As for recincome, 1 means less than $40,000; 2 represents $40,000-$100,000; 3 means
$100,000 and above.
Political engagement can take on many different forms, including voting, contributing
money to a candidate or political group, working or volunteering for a campaign, attending a
campaign event or contacting an elected official (Pew Research Center, 2014b). However, in
this paper, political engagement is defined as peoples involvement in politics and
politics-related activities. Specifically, political engagement includes peoples discussion of
politics (both online and offline; variable names: discussonline, discussoffline), peoples
offline political participation (politicalactivity) , and whether or not people had registered
to vote (registration).
Political activity, or political participation, refers to peoples offline participation in

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

political activities in this paper. It is a scale consisted of 10 survey items: in the past 12
months, have you attended a political rally or speech? (q16a), in the past 12 months, have
you attended an organized protest of any kind? (q16b), in the past 12 months, have you
attended a political meeting on local, town or school affairs? (q16c), in the past 12 months,
have you worked or volunteered for a political party or candidate? (q16d), in the past 12
months, have you been an active member of any group that tries to influence public policy or
government, not including a political party? (q16e), in the past 12 months, have you
worked with fellow citizens to solve a problem in your community? (q16d), in the past 12
months, have you contacted a national, state or local government official in person, by phone
call or by letter about an issue that is important to you? (q22a), in the past 12 months, have
you signed a paper petition? (q22c), in the past 12 months, have you sent a letter to the
editor by regular mail to a newspaper or magazine (q22e), in the past 12 months, have you
called into a live radio or TV show to express an opinion? (q22g) In all of the 10 survey
items, no is recoded as 1 and yes is recoded as 2. Therefore, the score of the index ranges
from 10 to 20 (10 items averaged scale, Cronbachs = .726, M = 11.57, SD = 1.873).
Online discussion reveals the frequency people discuss politics or public affairs
onlinesuch as by e-mail, SNS or text message. It is measured by the variable
discussonline. Similarly, offline discussion indicates the frequency people discuss politics
or public affairs offlineeither in person, by phone call, or by letter. Offline discussion is
measure by the variable discussoffline. In both of the two variables, never is recoded as 1;
less than once a moth is recoded as 2; at lease once a month is recoded as 3, at least
once a week is recoded as 4, and every day is recoded as 5.

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Registration shows whether or not the respondents had already registered to vote at the
time of the survey. It is tested by the variable registration, in which no is recoded as 1
and yes recoded as 2.
Political attitude indicates peoples political standpoints and perspectives towards
specific political issues. In this paper, political attitude refers to whether people have polar, or
extreme, political attitudes towards the following issues: whether the government should
support free market and individual achievement (q3e), whether the government should
provide more social services and social welfare (jobguarantee), whether the government
should work to reduce the income gap between the rich and poor (reduceincomegap),
abortion (abortion), and same-sex marriage (gaymarriage). Both extreme conservative or
extreme liberal standpoints are regarded as polar political attitudes. The variables were
recoded into polarq3e, polarjobguarantee, polarreduceincgap, polarabortion and
polargaymarriage, in which score 1 indicates moderate political attitudes, and 2 indicates
extreme or polar political attitudes.

Results and Discussion

Internet Use and Political Engagement
The correlation test shows a significant and positive relation between peoples internet
use and their frequency of discussing politics, both online (=.20, p=.00, <.05) and offline
(=.27, p=.00, <.05). Thus, H2 is supported. Also, internet use is significantly correlated to
peoples offline political participation (=.22, p=.00, <.05). Consequently, H3 and H1 are
supported: people who use the internet have higher political engagement than people who

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

11

dont use the internet or use the internet less.

Mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968) is a possible explanation for this phenomenon. The
theory posits that when people are more familiar with a subject, they are more likely to form
positive attitudes towards it and develop preference for it. According to a recent study
conducted by Pew Research Center, More than a half of U.S. adults get news from social
media incidentally (Mitchell, Kiley, Gottfried, & Guskin, 2013). When people are using the
internet, they are exposed to a news-saturated environment inevitably. Thus, they have more
opportunities to receive political information (either intentionally or unintentionally). Like
this, peoples exposure to political information and their familiarity with public affairs may
result in their high political engagement: talking about politics in a higher frequency, and
participating more political activities.
However, on account of the data collection method (a cross-sectional survey), we can
not decide which factor is the cause and which is the effect. Instead of seeing internet use as
the independent variable (the indicator/ predictor), we can also regard it as the dependent
variable. In this way, we can interpret the result as people who are more engaged in politics
are more likely to use the internet.
There is nearly no relationship between the use of the internet and the registration to
vote (=.09, p=.00, <.05). We can hardly predict whether or not a person will register to
vote based on their internet usage condition. Though the contingency table shows that the
registration rate within active internet users (83.6%) is higher than less active internet users
(77.5%, 74.7%), and the Chi-square test is significant (sig=.00, <.05), the differences
between groups are not huge, and the association between the two variables is not strong

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

12

(CramersV=.09, sig=.00; Kendalls tau-c=.06, sig=.00). Though the value of Gamma is .229
(sig=.00), this paper still considers that there is no relationship between peoples internet use
and their likeability to register for voting because Gamma always overstates the correlation
between variables.
As for the relationship between internet use and political attitudes, correlation tests show
that peoples internet use is not significantly correlated with their political attitudes, except
for the issue of job guarantee (=.10, p=.00, <.05). Nonetheless, the correlation is so weak
that can be negligible. Accordingly, H4 is rejected. Internet use is a poor indicator for polar
political attitudes.
This situation is quite different from China. In general, internet users in China express
extreme political attitudes online. Drastic disputes can be seen everywhere online between
the Conservative and the Liberal. Internet users tend to use fiercer languages and express
more radical political standpoints. These extreme expressions may result from the strict
censorship in mainstream media in China. Chinese citizens can hardly hear or express
opinions contrary to the viewpoints of the Communist Party of China. Therefore, Chinese
citizens may regard the internet as the outlet for their dissatisfactions and private opinions
towards political issues.
Some communication scholars adopt the gratifications theory to explain why people use
the internet. They claimed that people used the internet to reinforce their political standpoints,
conduct surveillance, and get excitements. (Weaver Lariscy, Tinkham, & Sweetser, 2011). In
the case of Chinese citizens internet use, we can interpret their online polar political attitudes
through the gratifications theory, too. Chinese citizens may use this way to give vent to their

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dissatisfactions and express opinions that they can not say in daily life. By those behaviors,
they are gratified.
Of course, we can not simply understand the relationship between Chinese citizens
internet use and their political attitudes as correlation or causation. First, the spiral of silence
might exist on social media. It is possible that the most active internet users or those who
express in a fierce way are only a very small portion among all internet users, while actually,
the majority of Chinese internet users are still be gentle and mild. Second, fierce expression
online cannot represent peoples political attitudes. Though people may express extreme
viewpoints or use fierce words online, their actual attitudes towards politics or certain
political issues might be moderate. They may just want to follow the trends of expressing
in a fiercer way or gratify themselves by doing so.
Party Lean and Political Engagement
The correlation test shows no statistically significant relationship between peoples party
lean and their political engagement. The test shows that among all the variables, only
political discussion offline (=.07 p=.03, <.05) and political activity (=.07, p=.02, <.05)
are significantly correlated with peoples party lean. But the correlations are very slight
(<.10), so they can be negligible.
However, ANOVA tests show that people whose party lean is neutral (that is, who tend
to be Independents, holding moderate political views instead of very conservative or very
liberal political views) discuss less politics both online (Mmoderate=1.89, Mconservative=2.17,
Mliberal=2.07, Mvery conservative=2.78, Mvery liberal=2.78; F(991)=15.97, p=.00, <.05; MSB=29.35,
MSW=1.84) and offline (Mmoderate=2.96, Mconservative=3.56, Mliberal=3.29, Mvery conservative=3.89,

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

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Mvery liberal=3.85; F(1104)=20.86, p=.00, <.05; MSB=31.74, MSW=1.52). They also participate
in less offline political activities (Mmoderate=1.80, Mconservative=1.80, Mliberal=1.94, Mvery
conservative=2.06,

Mvery liberal=2.16; F(1097)=10.07, p=.00, <.05; MSB=4.53, MSW=.45).

According to the ANOVA tests, the author concludes that people who hold neutral
political views have lower political engagement than people who hold conservative or liberal
political views. In other word, people who tend to be Independents are less engaged in
politics than people who identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats. From the
ANOVA tests we can also know that Republicans (/Conservatives) discussed politics in a
higher frequency than Democrats (/Liberals), both online and offline. On the other hand,
Democrats (/Liberals) participated in more offline political activities than Republicans
(/Conservatives).
Therefore, though political engagement does not covariate with party lean, the ANOVA
tests show that political engagement of people from different parties is significantly different
with each otherIndependents have lower political engagement that Republicans and
Liberals. Thus, H5 is rejected. Party lean can effectively indicate peoples political
engagement.
As to the relationship between party lean and political attitude, both the correlation and
the ANOVA tests imply that we cant conclude Republicans hold more extreme political
viewpoints than Democrats in general. Attitudes held by people from different parties vary
from topic to topic. Faced with economic issues, Republicans political attitude is more
polarized (MRepublican=1.68, MIndependent=1.47, MDemocrat=1.42; F(1964)=43.93, p=.00, <.05;
MSB=10.53, MSW=.24; =-.19, p=.00, <.05), while when talking about reducing the income

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

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gap (MRepublican=1.58, MIndependent=1.60, MDemocrat=1.69; F(1971)=8.64, p=.00, <.05; MSB=2.00,

MSW=.23;

=.09,

p=.00,

<.05)

and

abortion(MRepublican=1.35,

MIndependent=1.41,

MDemocrat=1.43; F(1918)=3.93, p=.02, <.05; MSB=.94, MSW=.24; =.06, p=.01, <.05),

Democrats political viewpoints are more radical and fierce than Republicans. Therefore, H6
is rejected. Generally speaking, Republicans do not hold more extreme political attitudes than
Democrats. Republicans viewpoints are extreme than Democrats on some issues (such as
free market), whereas Democrats opinions are more radical on other issues (such as abortion
and reducing economic inequality). It seems that both of the parties care more about
economic issues.
Demographics and Political Engagement
Sex
On the basis of the correlation test, the author concludes that sex does not influence
peoples political engagement significantly, neither can it reflect peoples political attitudes.
Sex is only slightly correlated with peoples discussion of politics offline (=.08, p=.00,
<.05) and whether or not people had registered to vote (=-.07, p=.00, <.05). Because the
Pearson correlation coefficients are less than .10 in both cases, which means theres little or
no association between the variables, this paper concludes that theres no significant
correlation between sex and the items in the political engagement index.
Likewise, sex is not a good indicator for peoples political attitudes as well. Though sex
is significantly correlated with peoples attitudes towards free market (=.08, p=.00, <.05),
peoples attitudes towards abortion (=-.09, p=.00, <.05) and peoples attitudes towards
same-sex marriage (=-.05, p=.04, <.05), the correlations are not strong enough to support a

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

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reliable and real relationship between sex and political attitudes.

Age
Surprisingly, age is not significantly correlated with political engagement based on the
correlation test. Thus, H7 is rejected. Young people (18-30) are not significantly less engaged
in politics. In terms of the ANOVA test and the corresponding post hoc test , there is no
significant difference for the frequency of discussing politics online between the young and
the elderly people (M18-30=2.07, M31-45=2.00, M46-60=1.94, M61+=2.00; F(1907)=.735,
p=.531, >.05). Although the ANOVA tests show that young peoples frequency of discussing
politics offline, young peoples frequency of participating political activities, and young
peoples registration rate are significantly different from the frequencies and the registration
rate of elderly people (F(2197)=5.79, p=.00, <.05; F(2183)=2.77, p=.04, <.05; F(2199)=80.41,
p=.00, <.05;), the difference are not large (discussion offline: M18-30=2.84, M31-45=2.99,
M46-60=3.20, M61+=2.98; F(2197)=5.79, p=.00, <.05; political activity: M18-30=11.39,
M31-45=11.60, M46-60=11.71, M61+=11.51; F(2183)=2.77, p=.04, <.05; registration to vote:
M18-30=1.57, M31-45=1.77, M46-60=1.86, M61+=1.92). This conclusion is also supported by
corresponding post hoc tests. Consequently, both H7A and H7B are rejected. Younger adults
discuss politics as much as elderly people do, and take part in as much political activities as
elderly people.
Even though H7A and H7B are rejected, H7C is supported. The registration rate among
younger adults are remarkable lower than older adults. 42.7% younger adults didnt register
to vote at the time the survey was conducted. This percentage is much higher than that of
elderly people (23.3%, 14.1%, 8.3% among people who are 31-45 years old, 46-60 years old,

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

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and people who are 61 years old and above respectively; the significance value of Pearson
Chi-square =.00, <.05).
Fortunately, it has been widely admitted by scholars that young people are not apathetic
towards politics (Owen, 2008; Loader, Vromen, & Xenos, 2014). The low voter turnout
among young adults may be attributed to the lack of appropriate media to reach them.
Evidences show that the voter turnout among young people have been increasing since 2004
(Owen, 2008), which might be related to the new forms of election mediacandidates are
using more and more new media, especially social media, for their political campaigns. Since
the Millennials are digital natives (Pew Research Center, 2014) and their internet usage is
significantly higher than elderly people (MMillennials=3.79, Mother=3.49; the significance value
of Levenes test=.00, the significance value of t-test=.00, <.05, t=9.76), it is possible that in
the future, with more political information on social media, the voter turnout or the
registration rate among young people will continue to increase.
Interestingly, according to the correlation test, age is positively correlated with the
polarization of political viewpoints on several issues, which is contrary to H8. The result
shows that political viewpoints held by elderly people are more extreme. Elder people tend to
have strong and extreme standpoints on free market (=.197, p=.00, <.05) and economic
equality (=.11, p=.00, <.05).
Education
According to the correlation tests, both H9 and H10 are supported. Peoples education has
a significantly positive correlation with political engagement (=.30, p=.00, <.05). Whats
more, education is significantly correlated with each item in the index political engagement

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

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(discussion online: =.19, p=.00, <.05; discussion offline: =.32, p=.00, <.05; political
activity: =.26, p=.00, <.05; registration: =.23, p=.00, <.05).
As predicted, the more educated a person is, the more moderate his or her political
attitude will be towards job guarantee (=-.14, p=.00, <.05), economic equality (=-.06,
p=.01, <.05), and abortion(=-.05, p=.02, <.05).
Since the correlation between education and political engagement (=.30, p=.00, <.05),
is stronger than the correlation between internet use and political engagement (=.22, p=.00,
<.05), and age is also an important factor predicting political engagement (=.08, p=.00,
<.05), the researcher regressed political engagement on internet use, education, and age.
The regression model is statistically significant (Sig=.00). 11.6% of variance can be
explained by the model. The Tolerance statistic and VIF value are both close to 1, which
indicates no multicollinearity. The final regression equation is:
political engagement=9.842+1.11internetuse+.21recage+1.10recedu.
By observing the standard coefficients () we find that education (.25) is a better
indicator for political engagement than internet use (.15), and age is a weak indicator for
political engagement (.06). This implies that though internet use can help increasing the voter
turnout among young adults, education is still the most important factor for establishing
political interest, increasing political knowledge, and improving political engagement.
Studies show that the greater the amount and quality of civic education people receive, the
more likely people are to turn out to vote, and the more likely they will use social media for
election-related purposes (Owen, 2011). This also supports the conclusion drawn by this
paper.

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Income
Unexpectedly, participants annual income is significantly correlated with political
engagement (=.24, p=.00, <.05), and peoples income level is significantly correlated with
each item in the index of political engagement (discussion online: =.15, p=.00, <.05;
discussion offline: =.29, p=.00, <.05; political activity: =.20, p=.00, <.05; registration:
=.21, p=.00, <.05). This indicates that wealthier people are more engaged in politics.
However, after introducing education as a control variable, the correlations between
income and the items of political engagement decrease. So education, instead of income, is a
more influential factor for political engagement.
The researcher also regressed political engagement on income, education, and age. The
regression model is also statistically significant (Sig=.00). 10.7% of variance can be
explained by the model. The Tolerance statistic and VIF value are both near to 1, meaning no
multicollinearity exists. The final regression equation is:
political engagement=13.315+.63income+.13recage+1.05recedu.
The conclusion mentioned above can be affirmed when we look at the standard
coefficients (). Compared with income (.13) and age (.04), education (.24) is a better
predictor for political engagement.
Moreover, the correlation tests show that wealthier people tend to have relatively
moderate political attitudes towards job guarantee (=-.13, p=.00, <.05) and abortion (
=-.07, p=.00, <.05) than poorer people. This might because peoples income is correlated to
education (=.45, p=.00, <.05) (people with higher education level tend to make more
money). Therefore, the reason why wealthier people hold relatively moderate political

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

20

attitudes may be because they received more education, thus, wealthier peopler are more
well-bred, decent and seldom expressing fierce opinions.

Conclusion
To sum up, this paper investigates the relationship between peoples internet use, party
lean, age, education, and their political engagement as well as political attitudes. The study
finds that internet use and education are indicators of peoples political engagement. Though
the higher use of the internet does not indicates extreme political attitudes, education is a
potent predictor for peoples political attitudes.
Peoples party lean can also reflect political engagement. Independents are less engaged
in politics than both Republicans and Democrats, while there is no significant difference
between the political engagement of Republicans and Democrats. We can not conclude that
the Republicans political attitudes are more extreme than the Independents or the
Democrats. The polarization of political attitudes varies according to political issues.
Surprisingly, the data show that young people are almost as active in politics as elderly
people. They discuss politics and participate in offline political events at a frequency as high
as elderly people, though remarkably less younger adults registered to vote than elderly
people did. But in general, age is neither an good indicator of political engagement nor an
reliable predictor for peoples political attitudes.
Education is a strong factor influencing peoples political engagement and a competent
predictor for indicating political attitudes. People with higher education level are more
engaged in politics and generally hold relatively moderate political attitudes. This suggests

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

21

that civic education may still be the most effective way for increasing citizens political
engagement.

INTERNET USE, AGE, AND EDUCATION INDICATORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGMENT

22

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