The complicated but solvable threat-politics relationship

Mark J Brandt; Bert N Bakker

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2022.02.005

The complicated but solvable threat-politics relationship

Trends Cogn Sci. 2022 May;26(5):368-370. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.02.005. Epub 2022 Mar 9.

Authors

Mark J Brandt¹, Bert N Bakker²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, MI, USA. Electronic address: brandt15@msu.edu.
² Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1001 NG, NL. Electronic address: b.n.bakker@uva.nl.

PMID: 35279382
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.02.005

Abstract

Popular models on the threat-politics association suggest that threats cause right-wing political preferences. Failed replications, crossnational variation, and examples of threats causing left-wing preferences suggest this relationship is more complicated. We introduce a model of the reciprocal threat-politics relationship that reconciles prior conflicting findings and raises new questions.

Keywords: attitudes; crossnational; ideology; political preferences; psychophysiology; threat.

MeSH terms

Humans
Politics*