The role of psychology in enhancing public policy: Studies on political apathy and attachment to the city in Indonesia

Abstract

The author conducted two studies with predictive correlational designs aiming to contribute understanding on socio-psychological dynamics related to public participation in public activities. This study applied purposive sampling and multiple linear regression data analyses. The first study with participants of 214 University of Indonesia students found that the sense of citizenship as well as indecision dimension of decision fatigue in taking political decision played a role in predicting public political participation in students. The second study with participants of 230 participants from urban music communities in Jakarta and its surroundings as well as in Bali, Indonesia, found that trust in municipal government has a negative correlation with attachment towards city and that participation in urban music communities does not contribute to such attachment. These results provided insights that we need to study the society psychosocial reality further, as one of the fields of the battle ground of interpretations of public policy, in order to increase the efficacy of public policy.