Demobilizing Effects of Political Consumption: Evidence Form a Survey Experiment

Making consumer choices based on political considerations has become increasingly common over the last decades, and is now the second most widespread form of political participation in many Western countries. Scholars have given conflicting account as to whether this political consumption ‘crowds out’ conventional political participation aimed at the formal political system, but recent accounts emphasize possible mobilizing effects of political consumption. However, any observed negative or positive relationship between political consumption and other forms of political participation may be driven by some third, omitted, variable. And since the existing studies are correlational in nature, they cannot actually assess whether the effect of political consumption on conventional participation is predominantly negative or positive. This article sheds light on the causal relation between political consumption and conventional participation by means of an experimental study with 410 respondents. The results run counter the prevailing wisdom of correlational studies as they indicate no significant mobilizing effects of political consumption on the willingness to participate, but instead finds significant demobilizing effects on a wide set of participation measures. The study contributes to the general understanding of the role of ‘crowding out’ effects on political participation, of the role of political consumption for other forms of political participation and will inform social movements’ strategies for mobilizing supporters.