Bad Mood? Mental Well-Being and Radical Right Voting in Four European Democracies

Research on the “ideological happiness gap” suggests that conservatives are happier than progressive-liberals, but studies on support for radical right populist parties (PRRPs) often describe their voters as lonelier, unhappier, and more dissatisfied. Data from Round 11 of the European Social Survey are used to estimate a Structural Equation Model (SEM) combining respondents from four European democracies with varying degrees of PRRP success but where these parties are well established (Poland, France, Spain, and Germany), thereby calling this assumption into question. Loneliness and depression only have modest or indirect effects, in the case of depression through interpersonal trust. Surprisingly, life enjoyment positively predicts support for PRRP, indicating that discontent has less to do with actual difficulties than with imagined threats to actual advantages. These findings complicate dominant narratives that portray PRRP voters as mostly “losers” and victimise them.