Support for the Populist Radical Right
- Author(s)
- Johann Gründl, Julian Aichholzer
- Abstract
The last several decades have witnessed a structural change in politics toward cultural and identity conflicts, accompanied by the rise of populist radical right (PRR) parties. However, we know surprisingly little about the psychological or cognitive‐motivational factors underlying PRR support. We claim that uncertainty avoidance (UA)—an epistemic avoidance motivation—represents a central motive because UA resonates with the PRR platform and precedes common predictors of PRR voting. Using data from the 2017 Austrian National Election Study, we found that UA was indeed indirectly associated with a higher likelihood of PRR voting. This association is because greater UA fostered right‐wing sociocultural views, whereas associations with populist attitudes or expected government competence were more ambiguous. PRR parties appear to offer “certainty,” but as extreme parties, they also remain a “risky choice.” We conclude by discussing the contribution of a cognitive‐motivational account to explain PRR voting.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government
- Journal
- Political Psychology
- Volume
- 41
- Pages
- 641-659
- No. of pages
- 19
- ISSN
- 0162-895X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12643
- Publication date
- 11-2019
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501021 Social psychology, 506012 Political systems, 501004 Differential psychology, 504007 Empirical social research
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/support-for-the-populist-radical-right(4af126d6-30ae-460e-b397-94ad322663e3).html