Does Anger Drive Populism?

Omer Ali, Klaus Desmet and Romain Wacziarg

No 31383, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study whether anger fuels the rise of populism. Anger as an emotion tends to act as a call to action against individuals or groups that are blamed for negative situations, making it conducive to voting for populist politicians. Using a unique dataset tracking emotions for a large sample of respondents from 2008 to 2017, we explore the relationship between anger and the populist vote share across U.S. counties. More angry counties displayed stronger preferences for populist candidates during the 2016 presidential primaries and elections. However, once we control for other negative emotions and life satisfaction, anger no longer operates as a separate channel in driving the populist vote share. Instead, our results indicate that a more complex sense of malaise and gloom, rather than anger per se, drives the rise in populism.

JEL-codes: D72 D91 E71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-ltv and nep-pol
Note: PE POL
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: Does anger drive populism? (2024)
Working Paper: Does Anger Drive Populism? (2023)
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