'Knowledge from whom?'. Het effect van utilitair individualisme en politieke machteloosheid op de non-respons in de tweede golf van een panel-survey

Samenvatting

'Knowledge from whom?'. The effect of utilitarian individualism and political powerlessness on the non-response in the second wave of a panel survey. Summary: The article outlines the proposition that certain attitudes and opinions that can almost exclusively be measured through survey research are distorted for reasons of differential non-response associated with those attitudes and opinions. This proposition is empirically verified based on panel data gathered in the context of election research. More specifically, research focused on the effect of utilitarian individualism and political powerlessness on the non-response in the second wave of election research. Utilitarian individualism is viewed as a psychological and social characteristic to express individual attachment to material goods and status. Political powerlessness refers to an individual's perception that he has no impact at all on the political system. The results show up the effect of utilitarian individualism on the non-response to be more significant than the effect of political powerlessness.