The kind of question that provokes an identity crisis among Austrian scholars 😬

Norms of radical-right exclusion don’t buffer these effects, and even entrenched norms (e.g., in Germany) shift quickly under elite cues. Indeed, mainstream supporters’ attitudes in Flanders already reflect a more cooperative context such as in Spain and Austria. 5/6

We find that, when center-right parties signal willingness to cooperate with the radical right, center-right voters reduce hostility towards radical-right voters. Radical-right supporters in turn reciprocate by disliking the center right less, leading to depolarization of the right. 3/6

New pre-print! How do coalition signals from the mainstream right towards the radical right impact affective polarization and political tolerance? Luana Russo, Jochem Vanagt, Katrin Praprotnik and I answer this question using an experiment in four countries (N = 5,643). osf.io/preprints/os... 1/6

Claude mag die Zuckerlkoalition

Too much time on your hands until the US election results start rolling in? Why not spend a few hours reading the amazing new Handbook on Affective Polarization, edited by Eelco Harteveld and Mariano Torcal, open access and available here: osf.io/preprints/os...

On the other hand, his move will go down well with the other half of the population (more people want ÖVP-SPÖ than FPÖ-ÖVP). Among ÖVP supporters, a coalition with SPÖ+Neos is marginally more popular than one with the FPÖ (www.oe24.at/oesterreich/...). Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

5/7 🛑 We find that radical-right supporters who harbor high dislike and low dislike differentiation pose a particular challenge to democracy. These "anti-system" voters are more dissatisfied with democracy, distrusting of political institutions and intolerant of other actors.

4/7 🔄 We subsequently combine dislike differentiation with out‐party dislike to create a 2 × 2 typology which we regress on three key facets of democratic support: satisfaction with democracy, political trust, and political tolerance.

2/7 📊 Using novel data from 2,628 radical-right supporters across 9 European countries, we show that some radical-right supporters dislike all mainstream parties equally, while others display more positive affect towards one particular mainstream block.

Check out this new special issue in Electoral Studies: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/elec... It contains 7 cool articles on the nature and causes of AP - using observational and experimental data, focusing on measurement, elites and ideology, and an important theoretical piece as well.