Hooked: How Politics Captures People's Interest

Political Interest is the strongest predictor of “good citizenship,” and yet we hardly know anything about it. For the first time in over three decades, here we have a study explaining what political interest is, where it comes from, and why it matters. Providing the most thorough description available of political interest in four Western democracies over many decades, the book analyzes large household panel data sets, rarely used in political science, to explain how interest develops in people’s lives. The book’s analytical approach pushes applied social scientists to consider how we can use panel data to better understand political behavior. It does so in a way that doesn’t gloss over complexities, but explains them in accessible language. Advanced statistical methods are presented informally, accompanied by graphical illustrations that require no prior knowledge to understand the methods used.