Replication Data for: Social Benefits Motivate Young Adult Civic Engagement

Civic engagement benefits both participants and society, but what motivates young adults to decide to become civically engaged? A cost-benefit analysis concludes that resume-building is a major motivator for young adult civic engagement participation because it has more visible short-term impacts compared to social or community motivators. Using a pre-registered survey experiment and follow-up focus groups fielded to college students, I demonstrate that respondents exposed to a treatment describing the social benefits of civic engagement are significantly more willing to increase their civic engagement. Counter to expectations, career benefits are, at best, a secondary motivating factor. These results suggest that civic engagement does not sell itself as inherently beneficial to young adults. Non-profit organizations and educators should consider ways to draw attention to the social benefits of civic engagement as a method of attracting additional program interest.