THE EFFECT OF TRAVEL ON POLITICAL BEHAVIOR AND FOREIGN POLICY OPINIONS

Brittany Leigh Wood

International tourism is on the rise. In the past eight consecutive years the rate of international tourism has grown above average, at around 4% per year. For perspective, in 1950 there were 25 million tourist arrivals in the world. By 2018, this number increased 56-fold to 1.4 billion arrivals. Given that the rate of international travel shows no signs of slowing down, understanding the effects of increased intergroup and intercultural interaction on political behavior and political attitudes is imperative. It is often assumed that international travel leads to new ways of thinking about the world and increased levels of intercultural awareness. Yet few studies have documented the political and psychological implications of traveling abroad and its effects on behavior and attitude. My research examines the association between traveling abroad and political interest, participation, knowledge, and foreign policy opinion using three studies. The first study is comprised of a survey assessing the relationship between travel and political behavior (i.e., interest, participation, and knowledge) using a student sample. The second study consists of a survey administered on Amazon Mechanical Turk and attempts to replicate the findings of the student sample survey. The third study is an analysis measuring changes in political behavior before and after travel. In addition to assessing changes in political behavior, I also measured Big Five personality traits, Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and foreign policy attitudes pre and post travel. Results of the three studies indicate that traveling abroad is associated with greater interest in politics, more political knowledge, and increased political participation. However, it is still unclear whether the positive association between travel, political interest, participation, and knowledge is driven by the travel experience or the innate qualities of the traveler. The results of a paired samples t-test indicate that individuals with recent international travel experience have higher levels of SDO post travel compared to pre travel. This may explain other findings; that travel is related to more militant foreign policy opinions even after controlling for differences in personality traits, political party affiliation, and demographic variables such as age, race, and sex. Specifically, those who have traveled abroad were more likely to favor military action abroad and to favor the United States to maintain its global military hegemony. Travel does not appear to be related to opinion on issues such as illegal immigration or status of refugees. Given the current trends in international travel, this research is noteworthy as increased travel may have implications for voting, foreign policy, and overall political involvement.

THE EFFECT OF TRAVEL ON POLITICAL BEHAVIOR AND FOREIGN POLICY OPINIONS

Files and links (1)

Abstract

Metrics

Details