Can low-cost, scalable, online intervention increase youth informed political participation in electoral authoritarian contexts?

Young citizens vote at low rates. This contributes to political parties' tendency to de-prioritize the youth's preferences. We analyze the effects of low-cost, theoretically-grounded, online interventions designed to encourage young Moroccans to turn out and cast an informed vote in the 2021 elections. Those interventions aimed at (1) lowering participation costs by providing information about the registration process, (2) increasing the expected benefit of voting by highlighting both the election’s stakes, and (3) the distance between respondents’ policy preferences and parties' platforms. The interventions failed to increase turnout on average. Yet, the two treatments designed to increase expected benefits increased turnout intentions for those unsure about whether to vote. Moreover, information about parties' platforms increased support for the party that is closer to respondents’ preferences, leading to better-informed voting. Contributing to information processing theories, we find that party updating was subjected to motivated reasoning, even though parties are weakly institutionalized.