Support for the Populist Radical Right

Autor(en)

Johann Gründl, Julian Aichholzer

Abstrakt

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(en)

Institut für Staatswissenschaft

Journal

Political Psychology

Band

41

Seiten

641-659

Anzahl der Seiten

19

ISSN

0162-895X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12643

Publikationsdatum

11-2019

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

501021 Sozialpsychologie, 506012 Politische Systeme, 501004 Differentielle Psychologie, 504007 Empirische Sozialforschung

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/support-for-the-populist-radical-right(4af126d6-30ae-460e-b397-94ad322663e3).html