Forgas, Joseph P, William D Crano, and Klaus Fiedler. 2023. The Psychology of Insecurity. Taylor & Francis.
Abstract
The experience of insecurity plays an important role in political affairs, an issue already recognized in Plato’s Republic. The rise of social, economic, or existential insecurity often fuels populist movements, as long as effective propaganda can provide voters with a suitable psychological narrative to channel fear and uncertainty. The chapter reviews recent evidence for the rise of populist politics both on the left and on the right of the political spectrum. It is suggested that insecurity potentiates an evolutionary need for tribal belonging (see also Hirschberger; Hogg & Gaffney, this volume). Insecurities can be manipulated and channeled by populist leaders by promoting tribal ideologies such as ethno-nationalism, xenophobia, Marxism, woke-ism, critical race theory, and others (see also Kreko; van Prooijen, this volume). Using an evolutionary psychological framework, the chapter suggests that tribalism helps alleviate insecurity and uncertainty by offering epistemic certainty and simplicity, tribal belonging and identification, moral superiority, the comforts of autocracy, and charismatic leadership (see also Kruglanski & Ellenberg; Pyszczynsky & Sundby, this volume). The psychological principles leading from insecurity to political populism are illustrated using an empirical case study of Hungary, an European Union (EU) member country that descended from democracy to populist autocracy in the last decade. The chapter argues that an evolutionary understanding of the paleolithic characteristics of tribalism as a fundamental feature of human nature offers a constructive way to understand the links between uncertainty, tribalism, and the rise of populist movements.
