Bringing Emotions In: How Anger Shapes the Relationship Between Social Isolation and Populist Attitudes

Abstract

In recent years, populism has attracted a lot of scholarly attention. In this article, I investigate the relationship between structural and subjective dimensions of social isolation and populist attitudes. In particular, I account for individuals’ emotional responses to social isolation that link social isolation to populist attitudes. Analyses based on original survey data show that both forms of social isolation are positively related to populist attitudes in six European countries. More importantly, mediation analyses reveal that in line with the proposed mediation argument, anger correlated both with isolation and populist attitudes. By offering a comparative test of the relationship between social isolation and populist attitudes and the mediating role of anger, I advance the understanding of how social isolation in a globalized world relates to populist attitudes. In this vein, the study underpins that emotional reactions to social changes are particularly important in understanding how these social changes affect political attitudes.