Pavlos Vasilopoulos - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Pavlos Vasilopoulos

Do Neighborhoods Empower or Disenfranchise? Co-ethnic Concentration, Spatial Disadvantage, and Voter Registration in France

Journal of Politics, 2024

Ethnoracial inequalities in political participation are a key feature of advanced democracies.... more Ethnoracial inequalities in political participation are a key feature of advanced democracies. Prior research suggests that the socioeconomic and ethnoracial composition of citizens’ local communities could be driving these disparities. Drawing on the case of France, this article uses two unique datasets to explore the role of neighborhoods in shaping voter registration. In both datasets, we show that living in a deprived neighborhood hinders the likelihood of registration among most citizens. Yet the effect of spatial proximity to co-ethnics increases registration among citizens of Sub-Saharan, North African and other non-European origins, while depressing it among European-origin citizens. Applying panel data allows us to control for individual heterogeneity to better disentangle neighborhood effects from residential self-selection. The complementary use of survey data further points to discrimination and marginalization as the driving mechanisms of African-origin citizens' propensity to register in co-ethnic dense neighborhoods.

European Journal of Political Research, 2023

The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political f... more The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political freedoms. This article investigates individual-level differences in mass support for the restriction of civil liberties during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Employing theories of affect and decision making, it assesses the extent to which different emotional reactions toward the pandemic influenced attitudes toward mobile phone surveillance and the implementation of curfews. We test our hypotheses in five advanced European democracies using panel data which allow us to identify the role of emotions in support for restrictive policies controlling for individual heterogeneity. The results suggest that experiencing fear about Covid-19 had a strong positive impact on supporting these measures, while hope and anger only played a minimal role. Importantly, the findings indicate that emotions moderate the impact of trust toward the government, a key variable for supporting the restriction of civil liberties during the pandemic. Specifically, experiencing fear was associated with higher acceptance of civil liberty restrictions. Further, experiencing fear substantially decreased the effect of trust in the government, rendering those who lack trust toward the government more supportive of civil liberty restrictions. These findings help us understand the psychological mechanisms that leads citizens to swiftly decide to sacrifice their civil liberties in the light of threat. Further, they offer empirical support for the causal role of affect in political decision-making.

Political Behavior, 2022

The assumption that increasing diversity and economic hardship boost support for the far right is... more The assumption that increasing diversity and economic hardship boost support for the far right is widespread, yet extant research comes up with contradictory findings. This article investigates the link between context and the far right by investigating the impact of immigration and unemployment on voting for Marine Le Pen in the first round of the 2017 French Presidential election. We match a large individuallevel survey with contextual variables constructed from the census describing voters' residential environments. Unlike previous studies, we measure immigration and unemployment at the neighborhood level and the broader level of the department. Using a multilevel model, we find that voters in neighborhoods with high levels of immigration are less likely to vote for the far right. However, in departments, increased immigration and unemployment correlate with greater support for Le Pen. These findings suggest that contact theory and ethnic threat operate differently according to spatial scale.

Political Psychology

Throughout Europe and North America, mainstream political parties have ceded electoral support to... more Throughout Europe and North America, mainstream political parties have ceded electoral support to antiestablishment parties from the far left and far right. We investigate the hypothesis that individual differences in system justification-the psychological tendency to defend and justify the overarching social system-would be negatively associated with antiestablishment voting, even among citizens who would otherwise be inclined to support radicalism. In three large, nationally representative surveys conducted in France (N = 14,432), Germany (N = 1,168), and the United Kingdom (N = 2,337), we observed that system justification was positively associated with voting for establishment parties and negatively associated with antiestablishment voting. System justification was associated with reduced support for antiestablishment parties on the right and left-even among respondents who were high on ethnic intolerance, opposition to the European Union, economic distress, and support for income redistribution. Thus, all other things being equal, system-justification tendencies reinforce political moderation, establishment voting, and therefore social stability.

Type de publication: Collectif Directeurs d'ouvrage: Cautrès (Bruno), Muxel (Anne) Résumé: Les ca... more Type de publication: Collectif Directeurs d'ouvrage: Cautrès (Bruno), Muxel (Anne) Résumé: Les cartes du jeu politique ont été drastiquement rebattues lors de l'élection présidentielle de 2017. Une véritable révolution électorale. Comment les Français s'y sont-ils adaptés ? Quels sont les éléments annonciateurs des difficultés rencontrées par le pouvoir actuel ? Lire un extrait Nombre de pages: 308

European societies are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse as a result of past and present i... more European societies are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse as a result of past and present immigration. After decades of researching immigration attitudes among the majority in Europe, scholarly interest has shifted in the last years into investigating the attitudes of the growing demographic of first and second generation immigrants. Extant explanations of individual differences in attitudes toward immigration among immigrants focus on factors related to political incorporation and socioeconomic status. However, an important blindspot of these studies is that they do not account for ethnic and racial heterogeneity within immigrant and native groups. In this article we advance the existing literature by investigating the implications of ethnicity and race among immigrants and natives on attitudes toward immigration. Our findings suggest that, unlike White immigrants and natives, Black and Asian minorities are consistently more likely to be supportive of immigration regardless o...

Scientific Data, 2022

This article introduces data collected in the Citizens’ Attitudes Under Covid-19 Project (CAUCP),... more This article introduces data collected in the Citizens’ Attitudes Under Covid-19 Project (CAUCP), which surveyed public opinion throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in 11 democracies between March and December 2020. In this paper, we present a unique cross-country panel survey of citizens’ attitudes and behaviors during a worldwide unprecedented health, governance, and economic crisis. This dataset investigates the behavioral and attitudinal consequences of multifaceted Covid19 crisis across time and contexts. In this paper, we describe the design of the CAUCP and the descriptive features of the dataset; we also present promising research prospects.

Emotions, Governmental Trust, and Support for the Restriction of Civil Liberties during the Covid‐19 Pandemic

European Journal of Political Research, 2022

The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political f... more The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political freedoms. This article investigates individual-level differences in mass support for the restriction of civil liberties during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Employing theories of affect and decision-making, it assesses the extent to which different emotional reactions toward the pandemic influenced attitudes toward mobile phone surveillance and the implementation of curfews. We test our hypotheses in five advanced European democracies using panel data which allow us to identify the role of emotions in support for restrictive policies controlling for individual heterogeneity. The results suggest that experiencing fear about Covid-19 had a strong positive impact on supporting these measures, while hope and anger only played a minimal role. Importantly, the findings indicate that emotions moderate the impact of trust toward the government, a key variable for supporting the restric...

Chapitre 11 - Deux voies vers la droite

Sociologie plurielle des comportements politiques, 2017

Affective Intelligence and Emotional Dynamics in Voters’ Decision Making Processes

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, 2019

Affective intelligence theory offers a novel and systematic treatment on the impact of affective ... more Affective intelligence theory offers a novel and systematic treatment on the impact of affective reactions on citizens’ information processes and political decisions based on neuroscience. Individuals have two distinct emotional systems that lead to two separate decision-making strategies. On the one hand, the disposition system, governed by enthusiasm and aversion, leads people to rely on habit or their sets of previously learned behaviors. On the other, the surveillance system is activated in novel or threating circumstances and is governed by anxiety. Once activated, anxiety leads individuals to seek for political information, break away from habitual political identifications, and consequently renders them more open to persuasion.

Submitted by ΑΝΝΑ ΠΟΡΤΙΝΟΥ (annaportinou@ekt.gr) on 2016-06-21T08:28:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 1.1... more Submitted by ΑΝΝΑ ΠΟΡΤΙΝΟΥ (annaportinou@ekt.gr) on 2016-06-21T08:28:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 1.131_ΔΔ_15_6_12.pdf: 1297574 bytes, checksum: f3d34baab7c70f1f959d9ecf05bb4725 (MD5)

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: System Justification in France

Attitudes des citoyens face au COVID-19

K.i a "' ; '~ ''~m /I* r, . n ati coy IMI PH 5 h eao FIiE BYE TTAT OALA TEXAS. C I A Count, O a '... more K.i a "' ; '~ ''~m /I* r, . n ati coy IMI PH 5 h eao FIiE BYE TTAT OALA TEXAS. C I A Count, O a ' '' 1:!'HiTfl D..rNFDA 1IOI'. hsdqprmaIgapar '.

Auteurs: Foucault (Martial), Vasilopoulos (Pavlos) Résumé: Comment rendre compte de l'instabilité... more Auteurs: Foucault (Martial), Vasilopoulos (Pavlos) Résumé: Comment rendre compte de l'instabilité électorale au cours de la campagne présidentielle de 2017 ? Cette contribution met en évidence le ressort psychologique individuel lié aux traits de personnalité pour mieux comprendre les raisons qui ont poussé près de 30 % des électeurs à changer de candidat préféré au cours des trois mois précédant le premier tour de l'élection. La figure de l'électeur rationnel est ici mise en débat par l'émergence d'un électeur émotionnel.

Acta Politica, 2017

Authoritarianism is a key concept in personality psychology, with a strong impact on political be... more Authoritarianism is a key concept in personality psychology, with a strong impact on political behavior in the United States. Yet, it has rarely been included in studies of political behavior in Europe. Drawing on a nationwide representative sample of the French electorate, we assess the demographic correlates of authoritarianism, as well as its impact on ethnic intolerance, economic conservatism, and propensity to vote for the four major French political parties. Results suggest that authoritarianism is positively associated with both intolerance and economic conservatism. Moreover, there is a strong and positive impact of authoritarianism on the propensity to vote for the far right Front National. Finally, contrary to the common left-wing authoritarianism thesis, we find a significant and negative association between authoritarianism and voting for the far left in France, both with and without taking attitudinal factors into account. These findings extend our understanding of the personality trait of authoritarianism and its impact on vote choice and political attitudes.

Political Psychology, 2019

Emotion, after a long period of inattention, began to attract greater scrutiny as a key driver of... more Emotion, after a long period of inattention, began to attract greater scrutiny as a key driver of human behavior in the mid-1980s. One approach that has achieved significant influence in political science is affective intelligence theory (AIT). We deploy AIT here to begin to understand the recent rise in support for right-wing populist leaders around the globe. In particular, we focus on specific emotional appraisals on elections held at periods of heightened threat, including the two 2015 terror attacks in France, as influences on support for the far-right Front National among conservatives. Contrary to much conventional wisdom, we speculate that threats can generate both anger and fear, and with very different political consequences. We expect fear to inhibit reliance on extant political dispositions such as ideological identification and authoritarianism, while anger will strengthen the influence of these same dispositions. Our core findings, across repeated tests, show that fear and anger indeed differentially condition the way habits of thought and action influence support for the far right in the current historical moment. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is anger that mobilizes the far right and authoritarians. Fear, on the other hand, diminishes the impact of these same dispositions.

Political Psychology, 2018

The conjecture that negative emotions underpin support for far-right politics is common among pun... more The conjecture that negative emotions underpin support for far-right politics is common among pundits and scholars. The conventional account holds that authoritarian populists catalyze public anxiety about the changing social order and/or deteriorating national economic conditions, and this anxiety subsequently drives up support for the far right. We propose that while emotions do indeed play an independent causal role in support for farright parties and policies, that support is more likely built upon the public's anger rather than fear.

Do Neighborhoods Empower or Disenfranchise? Co-ethnic Concentration, Spatial Disadvantage, and Voter Registration in France

Journal of Politics, 2024

Ethnoracial inequalities in political participation are a key feature of advanced democracies.... more Ethnoracial inequalities in political participation are a key feature of advanced democracies. Prior research suggests that the socioeconomic and ethnoracial composition of citizens’ local communities could be driving these disparities. Drawing on the case of France, this article uses two unique datasets to explore the role of neighborhoods in shaping voter registration. In both datasets, we show that living in a deprived neighborhood hinders the likelihood of registration among most citizens. Yet the effect of spatial proximity to co-ethnics increases registration among citizens of Sub-Saharan, North African and other non-European origins, while depressing it among European-origin citizens. Applying panel data allows us to control for individual heterogeneity to better disentangle neighborhood effects from residential self-selection. The complementary use of survey data further points to discrimination and marginalization as the driving mechanisms of African-origin citizens' propensity to register in co-ethnic dense neighborhoods.

European Journal of Political Research, 2023

The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political f... more The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political freedoms. This article investigates individual-level differences in mass support for the restriction of civil liberties during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Employing theories of affect and decision making, it assesses the extent to which different emotional reactions toward the pandemic influenced attitudes toward mobile phone surveillance and the implementation of curfews. We test our hypotheses in five advanced European democracies using panel data which allow us to identify the role of emotions in support for restrictive policies controlling for individual heterogeneity. The results suggest that experiencing fear about Covid-19 had a strong positive impact on supporting these measures, while hope and anger only played a minimal role. Importantly, the findings indicate that emotions moderate the impact of trust toward the government, a key variable for supporting the restriction of civil liberties during the pandemic. Specifically, experiencing fear was associated with higher acceptance of civil liberty restrictions. Further, experiencing fear substantially decreased the effect of trust in the government, rendering those who lack trust toward the government more supportive of civil liberty restrictions. These findings help us understand the psychological mechanisms that leads citizens to swiftly decide to sacrifice their civil liberties in the light of threat. Further, they offer empirical support for the causal role of affect in political decision-making.

Political Behavior, 2022

The assumption that increasing diversity and economic hardship boost support for the far right is... more The assumption that increasing diversity and economic hardship boost support for the far right is widespread, yet extant research comes up with contradictory findings. This article investigates the link between context and the far right by investigating the impact of immigration and unemployment on voting for Marine Le Pen in the first round of the 2017 French Presidential election. We match a large individuallevel survey with contextual variables constructed from the census describing voters' residential environments. Unlike previous studies, we measure immigration and unemployment at the neighborhood level and the broader level of the department. Using a multilevel model, we find that voters in neighborhoods with high levels of immigration are less likely to vote for the far right. However, in departments, increased immigration and unemployment correlate with greater support for Le Pen. These findings suggest that contact theory and ethnic threat operate differently according to spatial scale.

Political Psychology

Throughout Europe and North America, mainstream political parties have ceded electoral support to... more Throughout Europe and North America, mainstream political parties have ceded electoral support to antiestablishment parties from the far left and far right. We investigate the hypothesis that individual differences in system justification-the psychological tendency to defend and justify the overarching social system-would be negatively associated with antiestablishment voting, even among citizens who would otherwise be inclined to support radicalism. In three large, nationally representative surveys conducted in France (N = 14,432), Germany (N = 1,168), and the United Kingdom (N = 2,337), we observed that system justification was positively associated with voting for establishment parties and negatively associated with antiestablishment voting. System justification was associated with reduced support for antiestablishment parties on the right and left-even among respondents who were high on ethnic intolerance, opposition to the European Union, economic distress, and support for income redistribution. Thus, all other things being equal, system-justification tendencies reinforce political moderation, establishment voting, and therefore social stability.

Type de publication: Collectif Directeurs d'ouvrage: Cautrès (Bruno), Muxel (Anne) Résumé: Les ca... more Type de publication: Collectif Directeurs d'ouvrage: Cautrès (Bruno), Muxel (Anne) Résumé: Les cartes du jeu politique ont été drastiquement rebattues lors de l'élection présidentielle de 2017. Une véritable révolution électorale. Comment les Français s'y sont-ils adaptés ? Quels sont les éléments annonciateurs des difficultés rencontrées par le pouvoir actuel ? Lire un extrait Nombre de pages: 308

European societies are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse as a result of past and present i... more European societies are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse as a result of past and present immigration. After decades of researching immigration attitudes among the majority in Europe, scholarly interest has shifted in the last years into investigating the attitudes of the growing demographic of first and second generation immigrants. Extant explanations of individual differences in attitudes toward immigration among immigrants focus on factors related to political incorporation and socioeconomic status. However, an important blindspot of these studies is that they do not account for ethnic and racial heterogeneity within immigrant and native groups. In this article we advance the existing literature by investigating the implications of ethnicity and race among immigrants and natives on attitudes toward immigration. Our findings suggest that, unlike White immigrants and natives, Black and Asian minorities are consistently more likely to be supportive of immigration regardless o...

Scientific Data, 2022

This article introduces data collected in the Citizens’ Attitudes Under Covid-19 Project (CAUCP),... more This article introduces data collected in the Citizens’ Attitudes Under Covid-19 Project (CAUCP), which surveyed public opinion throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in 11 democracies between March and December 2020. In this paper, we present a unique cross-country panel survey of citizens’ attitudes and behaviors during a worldwide unprecedented health, governance, and economic crisis. This dataset investigates the behavioral and attitudinal consequences of multifaceted Covid19 crisis across time and contexts. In this paper, we describe the design of the CAUCP and the descriptive features of the dataset; we also present promising research prospects.

Emotions, Governmental Trust, and Support for the Restriction of Civil Liberties during the Covid‐19 Pandemic

European Journal of Political Research, 2022

The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political f... more The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political freedoms. This article investigates individual-level differences in mass support for the restriction of civil liberties during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Employing theories of affect and decision-making, it assesses the extent to which different emotional reactions toward the pandemic influenced attitudes toward mobile phone surveillance and the implementation of curfews. We test our hypotheses in five advanced European democracies using panel data which allow us to identify the role of emotions in support for restrictive policies controlling for individual heterogeneity. The results suggest that experiencing fear about Covid-19 had a strong positive impact on supporting these measures, while hope and anger only played a minimal role. Importantly, the findings indicate that emotions moderate the impact of trust toward the government, a key variable for supporting the restric...

Chapitre 11 - Deux voies vers la droite

Sociologie plurielle des comportements politiques, 2017

Affective Intelligence and Emotional Dynamics in Voters’ Decision Making Processes

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, 2019

Affective intelligence theory offers a novel and systematic treatment on the impact of affective ... more Affective intelligence theory offers a novel and systematic treatment on the impact of affective reactions on citizens’ information processes and political decisions based on neuroscience. Individuals have two distinct emotional systems that lead to two separate decision-making strategies. On the one hand, the disposition system, governed by enthusiasm and aversion, leads people to rely on habit or their sets of previously learned behaviors. On the other, the surveillance system is activated in novel or threating circumstances and is governed by anxiety. Once activated, anxiety leads individuals to seek for political information, break away from habitual political identifications, and consequently renders them more open to persuasion.

Submitted by ΑΝΝΑ ΠΟΡΤΙΝΟΥ (annaportinou@ekt.gr) on 2016-06-21T08:28:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 1.1... more Submitted by ΑΝΝΑ ΠΟΡΤΙΝΟΥ (annaportinou@ekt.gr) on 2016-06-21T08:28:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 1.131_ΔΔ_15_6_12.pdf: 1297574 bytes, checksum: f3d34baab7c70f1f959d9ecf05bb4725 (MD5)

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: System Justification in France

Attitudes des citoyens face au COVID-19

K.i a "' ; '~ ''~m /I* r, . n ati coy IMI PH 5 h eao FIiE BYE TTAT OALA TEXAS. C I A Count, O a '... more K.i a "' ; '~ ''~m /I* r, . n ati coy IMI PH 5 h eao FIiE BYE TTAT OALA TEXAS. C I A Count, O a ' '' 1:!'HiTfl D..rNFDA 1IOI'. hsdqprmaIgapar '.

Auteurs: Foucault (Martial), Vasilopoulos (Pavlos) Résumé: Comment rendre compte de l'instabilité... more Auteurs: Foucault (Martial), Vasilopoulos (Pavlos) Résumé: Comment rendre compte de l'instabilité électorale au cours de la campagne présidentielle de 2017 ? Cette contribution met en évidence le ressort psychologique individuel lié aux traits de personnalité pour mieux comprendre les raisons qui ont poussé près de 30 % des électeurs à changer de candidat préféré au cours des trois mois précédant le premier tour de l'élection. La figure de l'électeur rationnel est ici mise en débat par l'émergence d'un électeur émotionnel.

Acta Politica, 2017

Authoritarianism is a key concept in personality psychology, with a strong impact on political be... more Authoritarianism is a key concept in personality psychology, with a strong impact on political behavior in the United States. Yet, it has rarely been included in studies of political behavior in Europe. Drawing on a nationwide representative sample of the French electorate, we assess the demographic correlates of authoritarianism, as well as its impact on ethnic intolerance, economic conservatism, and propensity to vote for the four major French political parties. Results suggest that authoritarianism is positively associated with both intolerance and economic conservatism. Moreover, there is a strong and positive impact of authoritarianism on the propensity to vote for the far right Front National. Finally, contrary to the common left-wing authoritarianism thesis, we find a significant and negative association between authoritarianism and voting for the far left in France, both with and without taking attitudinal factors into account. These findings extend our understanding of the personality trait of authoritarianism and its impact on vote choice and political attitudes.

Political Psychology, 2019

Emotion, after a long period of inattention, began to attract greater scrutiny as a key driver of... more Emotion, after a long period of inattention, began to attract greater scrutiny as a key driver of human behavior in the mid-1980s. One approach that has achieved significant influence in political science is affective intelligence theory (AIT). We deploy AIT here to begin to understand the recent rise in support for right-wing populist leaders around the globe. In particular, we focus on specific emotional appraisals on elections held at periods of heightened threat, including the two 2015 terror attacks in France, as influences on support for the far-right Front National among conservatives. Contrary to much conventional wisdom, we speculate that threats can generate both anger and fear, and with very different political consequences. We expect fear to inhibit reliance on extant political dispositions such as ideological identification and authoritarianism, while anger will strengthen the influence of these same dispositions. Our core findings, across repeated tests, show that fear and anger indeed differentially condition the way habits of thought and action influence support for the far right in the current historical moment. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is anger that mobilizes the far right and authoritarians. Fear, on the other hand, diminishes the impact of these same dispositions.

Political Psychology, 2018

The conjecture that negative emotions underpin support for far-right politics is common among pun... more The conjecture that negative emotions underpin support for far-right politics is common among pundits and scholars. The conventional account holds that authoritarian populists catalyze public anxiety about the changing social order and/or deteriorating national economic conditions, and this anxiety subsequently drives up support for the far right. We propose that while emotions do indeed play an independent causal role in support for farright parties and policies, that support is more likely built upon the public's anger rather than fear.

A Comparison of the Influence of Four Electoral Models in Greece (In Greek)

Electoral Abstention in Greece: 2000-2010 (In Greek)

The impact of terrorist events on attitude formation and change among mass publics has been well ... more The impact of terrorist events on attitude formation and change among mass publics has been well established in political research. Still, no individual-level study has examined the impact of terrorist attacks on political participation. This article aims to fill this gap. Drawing on theories of affect, I predict that fear stemming from a terrorist attack will increase motivation to seek out political information, yet will have a negative effect on actual participation. On the contrary, anger will hinder information-seeking but will mobilize participation in political action, even when such action entails an increased physical risk for the participant. I test these hypotheses using data from one panel study that collected one wave before and a second wave after the January 2015 Paris attacks, and from one cross-sectional study carried out soon after the November 2015 attacks.

Authoritarianism is a key concept in personality psychology, with a strong impact on political be... more Authoritarianism is a key concept in personality psychology, with a strong impact on political behavior in the United States. Yet, it has rarely been included in studies of political behavior in Europe. Drawing on a nationwide representative sample of the French electorate, we assess the demographic correlates of authoritarianism, as well as its impact on ethnic intolerance, economic conservatism and propensity to vote for the four major French political parties. Results suggest that authoritarianism is positively associated with both intolerance and economic conservatism. Moreover, there is a strong and positive impact of authoritarianism on the propensity to vote for the far right Front National, which is however strongly mediated by attitudes toward immigration. Finally, contrary to the celebrated left-wing authoritarianism thesis, we find a significant and negative association between authoritarianism and voting for the far left in France, both with and without taking attitudinal factors into account. These findings extend our understanding of the personality trait of authoritarianism and its impact on vote choice and political attitudes.

Authoritarianism is a key concept in personality psychology, with a strong impact on political be... more Authoritarianism is a key concept in personality psychology, with a strong impact on political behavior in the United States. Yet, it has rarely been included in studies of political behavior in Europe. Drawing on a nationwide representative sample of the French electorate, we assess the demographic correlates of authoritarianism, as well as its impact on ethnic intolerance, economic conservatism and propensity to vote for the four major French political parties. Results suggest that authoritarianism is positively associated with both intolerance and economic conservatism. Moreover, there is a strong and positive impact of authoritarianism on the propensity to vote for the far right Front National, which is however strongly mediated by attitudes toward immigration. Finally, contrary to the celebrated left-wing authoritarianism thesis, we find a significant and negative association between authoritarianism and voting for the far left in France, both with and without taking attitudinal factors into account. These findings extend our understanding of the personality trait of authoritarianism and its impact on vote choice and political attitudes.