2023/12/28 by Oluf Gøtzsche‐Astrup, Michael A. Hogg · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Media Influence and Politics
paper · doi:10.1177/13684302231211291
openalex publication_date 2023/12/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Recent years have witnessed a widespread rise of right-wing populism—an ideology maintaining that the will of the people is supreme, but is subverted by antagonistic elites. Drawing on uncertainty-identity theory, three studies (total N = 5,882) tested the hypothesis that uncertainty would only strengthen support for populism among low authoritarian respondents. Studies 1 and 2 were secondary analyses of American National Election Survey (ANES) 2012 and 2016 data. They supported our key hypotheses in explaining support for the populist American Tea Party (Study 1, N = 1,917), and support for right-wing populist ideology and voting preference for Donald Trump rather than Hillary Clinton (Study 2, N = 2,520). Study 3 ( N = 1,445) experimentally manipulated self-uncertainty to allow a causal interpretation, and focused on right-wing populist ideology. The results are discussed in terms of their contribution to uncertainty-identity theory, and their societal relevance in an environment of growing populism.