‘According to a study conducted by Inserm in association with SciencesPo, difficult social conditions in childhood tend to direct votes towards authoritarian candidates.
Social and economic crises are often accompanied by a rise in political authoritarianism and populism. Many see a link with poverty, but the analysis of these phenomena often passes through the prism of contextual factors.
Researchers from Inserm’s cognitive science laboratory, in association with SciencesPo, attempted to interpret political choices based on psychological parameters.
The result of their study, published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, shows that exposure to poverty in childhood increases the preference for dominant and untrustworthy politicians. And this, whatever the socio-economic condition of the subjects in adulthood.
Dominant and untrustworthy
To arrive at these conclusions, the team carried out several experiments. Based on results showing that simple judgments on the faces of candidates predicted the results of political elections, they observed different faces of children, then adults. These faces exhibited characteristics corresponding to different levels of confidence and dominance.
Forty-one 7-year-olds had to choose, among these faces, which person they preferred to have as a team captain for a mountain hike. Those faced with unfavorable socio-economic conditions were more likely to choose captains who appeared to be more dominant, and less trustworthy.
Secondly, in partnership with the Ipsos polling institute, they randomly presented two faces to adults, asking them for whom they would be most likely to vote. Here too, social status in childhood influenced choices towards the most authoritarian and suspicious faces.
The choice of authoritarianism
Finally, the researchers analyzed the relationship to authoritarianism more directly, by analyzing the participants’ support for the following statement: “I think that having a strong man at the head of the country who does not have to worry about parliament or elections is a good thing ”. Once again, people who suffered from poverty in their childhood responded more positively.
This study, carried out on French people, but also on a sample of inhabitants of 46 other European countries, does not however conclude to a political determinism according to social origins. Poverty in childhood influences but does not define future political choices.
However, this work shows that in a period of rising populism in Europe, social origins can influence, at least in part, political choices. In a context where the voting choices often depend on the charisma of the candidates, this Inserm analysis could therefore be significant.
.
