One of the most regular findings drawn from public opinion survey data is that women are less interested in politics than men. Recent studies have started to challenge this common view, by showing that there are significant differences in the political topics women and men are interested in. Allegedly, the classic indicator of political interest (‘In general, how interested are you in politics?’) does not capture equally well women and men’s political interests. As a consequence, part of the gender gap repeatedly identified over time and across countries might be – at least partially – an artifact of the measurement instruments used in surveys.

Departing from these late findings, in this article we put the classic indicator of political interest to the test. Using a mixed-methods approach, we unravel latent stimuli implicit in the measurement of political interest. Firstly, we conducted an online cognitive interview to uncover women and men’s potential differences in the understanding and interpretation of the classic survey indicator. Secondly, based on these initial findings, we conducted a series of survey experiments whereby we offered different sets of stimuli to the respondents that connect to different notions of the political. These studies do not only allow for a rigorous test of the gender differences in political interest, but do also open the ground for potential recommendations on the measurement of political interest.