Conference ABSP-VPW-BrIAS: Belgium: The State of the Federation + Seminar by Joke Matthieu

Belgium: The State of the Federation

Programme TBD soon.

Do Voting Advice Applications Make Better Citizens? From Political Knowledge to Vote Choice: Evidence from “De Stemtest” and “De Jongerenstemtest” during the 2024 Elections

by Joke Matthieu

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) have become one of the most widely used information tools in election campaigns. Their democratic promise is considerable: VAAs are expected to inform voters, mobilize them, and help them vote in line with their preferences. Yet whether they deliver on these promises remains debated. This BrIAS talk brings together a series of studies on two real-world VAAs used during the 2024 Belgian elections: “De Stemtest” and the youth-oriented “De Jongerenstemtest”. Drawing on randomized experiments embedded in the YouVoice panel study of young citizens aged 16–30, complemented by panel data on natural VAA use during the campaign, it examines the influence on party position knowledge, ideological knowledge, turnout motivation, internal political efficacy, and party preferences. The findings show that VAAs can strengthen young voters’ political knowledge and engagement, particularly when the tool is tailored to a young audience, with some indications that less politically sophisticated users benefit most. The BrIAS talk concludes by discussing what these results imply for the democratic value of VAAs and for their design.

Bio

Joke Matthieu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Democratic Futures (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and the M2P research group (University of Antwerp). Her research interests include inequalities in political socialization processes and more general research on political behavior. She has published recently in the European Journal of Political Research, Politics and Gender, Political Behavior, and West European Politics.