Pandemic Threat and Authoritarian Attitudes in Europe. An Empirical Analysis of the Exposure to Covid-19

Filsinger, Maximilian; Freitag, Markus (2022). Pandemic Threat and Authoritarian Attitudes in Europe. An Empirical Analysis of the Exposure to Covid-19. European Union politics, 23(3), pp. 417-436. Sage Publications 10.1177/14651165221082517

	Text 14651165221082517.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (1MB)
Preview	Text Final-Version-Pre-Print-Filsinger_Freitag-EUP.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (645kB) | Preview

While analysis of the impact of threatening events has moved from bit player to center stage in political science in recent decades, the phenomenon of pandemic threat is widely neglected in terms of a systematic research agenda. Tying together insights from the behavioral immune system hypothesis and standard political science models of emotional processing, we evaluate whether exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic threat is related to authoritarian attitudes and which emotions do the work. Using 12 samples with over 12,000 respondents from six European countries at two time points (2020 and 2021), we argue that pandemic threats can generate disgust, anger, and fear. Our analyses indicate that exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic threat particularly activates fear, which in turn is linked to authoritarian attitudes.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

53 since deposited on 07 Apr 2022
43 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item