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.
Highlights
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
We examined the impact of differences in uncertainty avoidance (UA) on voting for a PRR party and how this effect is mediated by ideological core beliefs and populist attitudes as well as performance considerations
Our results suggested a significant overall effect of UA on PRR voting, corroborating Hypothesis 1
Summary
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. We would assume that voters high in UA favor PRR parties because their core ideology provides a means to deal with uncertainty. H7: In sum, these ideological core beliefs make voting for the PRR more likely and mediate the effect of UA.
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