AmericasBarometer Insights: 2016

Years of schooling is a positive and substantively important predictor of self-reported political interest. Individuals with higher levels of education tend to have higher levels of political interest. This suggests that education plays a crucial role in cultivating an attentive public. News consumption and Internet use are also positively correlated with one's reported political interest. Individuals who consume news and use the Internet tend to have higher levels of political interest. This indicates that access to information and communication technologies can facilitate political engagement. Engagement in local activities and political interest appear to be mutually reinforcing. Individuals who participate in local activities tend to have higher levels of political interest, and those with higher levels of political interest tend to participate in local activities. This suggests that community involvement can foster political engagement. Satisfaction with the executive, measured by high approval, positively predicts self-reported interest in politics. Individuals who approve of the executive's job performance tend to have higher levels of political interest. Conversely, those who have moderate to low levels of executive approval tend to have lower levels of political interest. This suggests that executive approval can influence political engagement. A regression analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between political interest and socioeconomic and demographic factors. The results indicate that years of schooling, wealth, and age are all positive predictors of political interest. Being a woman is a negative predictor of political interest. The effect of living in an urban versus a rural area is not statistically significant. The analysis reveals that a maximum increase in wealth results in a 3-degree increase in political interest. A maximum increase in years of schooling results in a 20-degree increase in political interest. This substantial effect of education on political interest suggests that schools can play a key role in cultivating an attentive public. A maximum increase in age results in an approximately 6-degree increase in political interest. The results for gender show that an individual who is female reports political interest levels that are 5 degrees lower than her male counterparts, when all other factors are held constant. This may be due to the barriers to political participation that women face from socialization into particular gender roles. News consumption is a positive predictor of political interest, with individuals who consume news having higher levels of political interest. Community participation is also a positive predictor of political interest, with individuals who participate in community activities having higher levels of political interest. Executive approval is a positive predictor of political interest, with individuals who approve of the executive's job performance having higher levels of political interest. The analysis also reveals that there is substantial variation in political interest across the 28 countries in the region. The region's longest-standing democracies, the United States and Canada, show the highest levels of political interest, with mean scores of 64.5 and 53.7 degrees, respectively. Two of the four countries with the lowest levels of political interest, Guyana and Haiti, are characterized by low levels of development. However, countries with similar political and/or economic challenges are also found higher on the chart.