It’s often assumed that people turn to far-right political parties because of fear of the unknown. Research from King’s College London suggests that’s not the case, and a more likely culprit is a lack of trust in political institutions and anger at the state of society.
The study found that people became more inclined to vote for far-right parties when they were angry than when they experienced anxiety or fear, which appeared to show no such correlation. What’s more, this was especially so among those who also had low levels of trust in political institutions.
“Our study demonstrates that anger in reaction to immigration is associated with support for the far right,” the researchers say. “Such parties are seen as the key political actors to address the norm violations that immigrants are perceived to be committing.”
Driving action
The researchers hope that by distinguishing the emotions behind behaviors it will be possible to better understand what drives people to support far-right political parties. That it calls into doubt the notion that such parties prey on a “politics of fear” is an interesting starting point.
“Simply put, whereas anger pushes groups and people away from each other toward opposite ends, thereby provoking affect-driven polarized politics, fear is much more closely associated with support for the status quo rather than radicalism and polarization,” the researchers explain.
The researchers conducted a number of surveys in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, with each of them showing that the likelihood of supporting far-right parties rose with the level of anger people felt about immigration. This anger was also associated with an over-estimation of the number of immigrants both in the country and coming to the country.
“The feeling of significant dissatisfaction with immigration policies tends to color how the public perceives the number of immigrants entering the country,” the authors conclude. “Anger appears to bias the public’s capacity of estimation in regard to an issue of importance, such as immigration.”
