Age and Individual Preferences for Political Representation - a Conjoint Experiment

Politicians are often older than the population they represent. Does this conflict with (young) voters’ views of who should represent them? I investigate how age shapes preferences for political representation. I argue that voters prefer representatives from their own age group (descriptive representation), because they attach symbolic meaning to seeing someone their age holding political office. This effect should be strongest for young voters who are traditionally underrepresented. Voters should also favor candidates supporting policies that benefit their age group (substantive representation) and candidates who appeal to them via communication platforms primarily used by their age group (Instagram/TikTok vs. TV). Using a conjoint experiment from Germany (N = 2,000), I assess the importance of different candidate attributes for representation preferences among three different age groups. The findings of this paper might offer a pathway for older politicians to mitigate age differences by substantively and communicatively appealing to younger voters. This study contributes to debates on age inequalities in political representation.