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Pamela Davison had just finished early voting in the Texas primary runoff and was walking back to her car with a spring in her step.
“I love to vote,” Davison said. “I always vote.”
The 74-year-old was surprised to hear about a recent study suggesting that voting is associated with a longer life.
“Doesn’t seem too logical,” she said, “but I’d like to think it’s true.”
Molly McGarraugh Davis, 76, also voted early in the runoff. She said she can see how casting a ballot could have a personal benefit.
“I think voting means that I care,” Davis said. “I care about how my communities run, how my cities run, and it matters for the quality of my life and other people’s lives.”
That sense of connection may help explain the findings of a paper published in The Journals of Gerontology Series B titled “Voting behavior and mortality risk in older adults.”
Femida Handy, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice and one of the study’s co-authors, said the results surprised even the researchers.
“Because the results were so striking, we had to rerun and rerun the data,” Handy said. She added that peer reviewers asked the researchers to conduct additional checks before publication.
The study used data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, one of the longest-running social science studies in the United States. It began in 1957 with a random sample of more than 10,000 Wisconsin high school graduates and has followed participants throughout their lives.
After controlling for factors that could affect mortality — including income, health status and civic engagement — the researchers found that older adults who voted had a 45% lower mortality risk five years after voting compared with nonvoters.
The study also found that people in poorer health appeared to benefit more.
Handy said the result didn't change depending on which party the voter supported.
“It didn’t matter what their political affiliation was,” she said.
The benefit also was not limited to people who physically went to the polls.
“Even those who had voted remotely have a decreased mortality risk,” Handy said.
But the researchers are careful to say the study does not prove that voting itself causes people to live longer. There is no evidence that simply wearing an “I voted” sticker extends life. Instead, Handy said, the act of voting may reflect something deeper: a sense of purpose, community connection and belief that one’s actions matter.
“I put the ‘I voted’ sticker on, I feel good about myself,” Handy said. “And I think that is also very helpful — that when you think you’ve done something good, it makes you feel good.”
Neuroscientist and science communicator Ben Rein, author of "Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection" was not involved in the study. But he said the findings make sense in light of existing research on social connection and health.
“Voting isn’t a medication that extends your life,” Rein said. “It feels like people who vote are also something else — and that something else is positively related to longevity.”
Rein said a large body of research shows that people who feel connected to their communities tend to have better health outcomes.
Handy said the selfless nature of voting may be part of what matters. “You’re just doing this because you believe in it, because you think you’re part of a community, you have a sense of purpose, and you want to make a difference,”
Handy said. “And I think that’s what’s driving the results.”
Handy said she hopes to continue studying the connection between voting, civic participation and health. In the meantime, she said, the message is simple: people should vote.
