Bridging the Work and the Political Domain: The Relationship Between Effort–Reward Imbalance at Work and Political Cynicism via Perceived Control at Work

Political cynicism undermines democratic states and is on the rise in Europe. A better understanding of the processes and predictors of political cynicism is both timely and relevant. Bridging work psychology and political sciences, we investigate the relationship between perceptions of effort–reward imbalance from the workplace and their association with political cynicism. We predict that perceived control at work mediates the relationship between effort–reward imbalance and political cynicism. Moreover, we investigate the role of time and study the proposed relationships using several analytical approaches in a cross-lagged panel design. Analyses were based on 277 Belgian workers (time lag: 8 months). Relationships were supported in the cross-sectional and over-time analyses but not in the fully longitudinal model accounting for autoregressive effects; reverse causation effects were not found. There are some signs that contributing to work and not feeling adequately rewarded may be a relevant factor in better understanding political attitudes.