Competitive Norms and the Rise of the Populist Radical Right

Populist radical right (PRR) parties are becoming increasingly popular, posing a serious threat to the future of (liberal) democracy. As most PRR voters feel “left behind”, democratic systems are in burning need of designing political innovations that rebuild trust in institutions and enhance citizens’ voices through deliberative and participatory processes. A crucial prerequisite for successful deliberation and participation, however, is the fostering of cooperation. Previous research highlights the importance of both objective and subjective deprivation—such as low socioeconomic status and perceived cultural threats—in driving PRR support. We trace this phenomenon back to promoting social norms prioritizing individual responsibility, justifying status inequalities, and promoting competition for social recognition. Accordingly, in two earlier studies, we demonstrate how (competition and status-focused) narcissistic personality traits interact with social status concerns in predicting PRR support. More specifically, a network study and an online experiment suggested that lower status activates vulnerable narcissism (potentially reinforcing authoritarian and populist attitudes), while rivalrous narcissism is amplified by middle-class status (possibly fueling nativist inclinations) in driving PRR voting. Drawing on previous findings linking narcissism to a competitive worldview and associating RWA positively to competitive/vertical and negatively to cooperative/horizontal societies, our present experiment investigates whether priming participants with cooperative (versus competitive) norms can mitigate the positive effect of status-related personality (and status anxiety in general) on PRR support. As perceived status threat is largely responsible for undermining institutional trust and civic participation, we offer evidence-based insights on how communicating cooperative norms may be integrated into policymaking processes to potentially curb the rise of the PRR.