This paper looks at changes in political attitudes using data from an online panel survey from Spain, which includes 4 waves carried out between 2010 and 2012, interviewing 1,800 individuals aged between 16 and 45. The paper describes and explains intra-individual variation along time in political attitudes, focusing particularly in trust in authorities and specific institutions –Spanish Parliament, Spanish Government, political parties and banks–. First, we assess the extent to which some variables –as political trust– are indeed more changeable than others –such as political interest–. Second, we address in which direction the observed change moves. The expectation is to observe individuals moving most to positions of lower trustiness along time, which fits with the current economic and political circumstances in a context of increasing disaffection. We then focus on characterizing the profiles of those individuals that are more likely to change their political attitudes along time. Finally, the paper explains the variation in changes experienced by the Spanish citizens.
Key words: political attitudes, change, trust in institutions, panel data
