Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Political participation willingness is measured through a survey based on hypothetical scenarios. Specifically, we use scenarios such as traffic congestion or noise pollution to assess participants’ willingness to report issues to either central or local government as an indicator of political engagement. These responses are aggregated into a comprehensive participation willingness index, where higher scores indicate greater political engagement. To ensure the robustness of the results, the index is standardized, and we control for potential confounders such as demographic variables and participants’ baseline perceptions of government responsiveness.
Additionally, participants’ willingness to participate may vary depending on the severity of the issues presented. To account for the impact of issue severity on willingness to engage, we included follow-up questions in each scenario to quantify the severity of the problem. For example, in the case of traffic congestion, severity levels include delays of 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, or more than 1 hour. For noise pollution, severity levels include durations of three days, one week, half a month, and a month or longer. Participants were asked to evaluate their likelihood of reporting the issue under these varying levels of severity.