The impact of social exclusion on voting behavior

Most people know the feeling of being excluded. Ostracism – the technical term for feeling excluded and ignored – is widespread and has serious consequences. 

Researcher Natalia Bogatyreva from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel investigated ostracism in relation to voting behavior and found that socially excluded people vote less often. She has now published her findings in the journal Political Psychology.

“Ostracism affects many people and takes many forms, and that’s exactly what makes this phenomenon so interesting,” explains the social psychologist. In some cases, one may not be included in a conversation or not invited to an activity due to not conforming to social norms. Or in a more crude way because of their sexuality, disability, mental illness or homelessness. More prolonged and strong experiences can lead to almost total exclusion from a community or society.

Exclusion hampers voter turnout

In order to investigate the link between ostracism and voting behavior, Natalia Bogatyreva evaluated two polls in which 5,765 people from 11 different European countries took part. The respondents indicated, among other things, whether they cast their vote at the last election in their country and how often they feel excluded in everyday life.

The data analysis clearly showed that the more socially isolated a person feels, the higher the chance that they will not vote. Predictions in analysis show, that the most excluded people would vote half as often as people who feel socially included, keeping all other factors constant. 

A question of resources

“Democratic voting is a very social process. People who are often excluded no longer feel that voting has anything to do with them, as they are emotionally cut off from society,” speculates Bogatyreva.

Another reason could be that socially excluded people no longer have the capacity to participate democratically. “Dealing with politics takes time and energy – resources that physically or mentally ill people may not have enough of” says Bogatyreva.

Nevertheless, the majority of socially excluded people do exercise their right to vote. Do they express their frustration by giving preference to populist parties? The findings of Natalia Bogatyreva and her coauthors do not support this hypothesis. Populist ideologies do not seem to be favored– neither right-wing nor left-wing. “Perhaps, excluded people vote for centrist and moderate parties, as an attempt to reinclude themselves.” Bogatyreva  says. Further research would be needed to verify this assumption.

Towards a more democratic society

The more people participate in elections, the more representative a democracy is. How can we increase the involvement of excluded people in the process? Bogatyreva explains: “The best thing a state can do for excluded people is to support their mental health and make psychotherapy more accessible, for example.”

But anyone can help on a personal level, too; for example, by forming large groups to go to vote together, which anyone can join. Methods such as these help to reduce social exclusion and strengthen democracies.

Original publication

Natalia Bogatyreva et al.
Ostracism as a threat to modern democracies: Evidence from 11 European countries
Political Psychology (2024), doi: 10.1111/pops.13046