Young people are often thought to be disengaged from politics and less willing to vote. Especially in contrast with older voters who already know whom to vote for or are more interested in politics. Therefore, some of the main encouragers for young people to turn out is to make politics accessible and interesting, as well as provide easy ways to better understand politics. A tool, that has been developing rapidly is the Voting Advice Application (VAA). In Finland VAAs are one of the most trusted sources of political recommendations and are widely used by the electorate. Because they provide easily accessible cues through matching voters and candidates, no in-depth knowledge of politics is required. Especially if the VAAs are developed in a way that is user-friendly, they can be an useful tool to increasing citizen knowledge. Therefore, VAAs can provide a straightforward way to influence young people’s interest and knowledge of politics, as well as their willingness to turn out to vote. In this paper we aim to answer the question: Does filling out VAAs affect young people’s political knowledge and willingness to vote? By analysing data from one of the biggest Finnish VAAs, we are able to trace whether filling out VAAs can affect especially young people’s political knowledge and interest to vote in the 2023 Finnish Parliamentary Elections.
