Segmenting Youth Voting Behaviour through Trusting-Distrusting Relationships: A Conceptual Approach

This paper reviews current evidence on the declining political engagement of British youth. What emerges is that causes of their political disaffection are manifold and complex, but trust, distrust and cynicism feature strongly. Traditional approaches to trust and distrust fail to recognise this complexity; consequently this paper offers a more sophisticated conceptual framework that examines trust and distrust as separate but linked dimensions, as advocated by Lewicki, McAllister and Bies.[Lewicki, R. J., McAllister D. J. and Bies R. J. (1998) ‘Trust and distrust: New relationships and realities’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 438–458.] From the analysis four segments of ‘voter’ types are identified. By segmenting voters in this way, marketers can design strategies to help increase young people's trust and reduce their distrust, thereby increasing their propensity to vote in future elections. A synopsis of marketing aims to stimulate the ‘youth vote’ is presented along with areas for further research. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications