IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/fsesxx/v30y2025i3p413-439.html

Beyond anger and fear: the demobilizing role of sadness in far-right voting in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Carol Galais
  • María Ruiz Hernández

Abstract

This study investigates emotional dynamics behind support for Vox in Spain, offering a case study of far-right support. It addresses prior research’s narrow focus on anger and fear, and its tendency to treat emotions as stable traits. Using four waves of a Spanish panel (2020–2023), we analyse how emotional reactions to the ‘most important problem’ (MIP) influence voting intentions. Findings show that anger has a limited, reinforcing effect, while sadness can deactivate Vox’s appeal over time. Although emotions have less explanatory power than MIPs, their influence is dynamic and politically relevant. Our results challenge assumptions about the centrality of anger and call for improved models of emotional mechanisms – especially those involving understudied emotions like sadness – in political behaviour research.

Suggested Citation

  • Carol Galais & María Ruiz Hernández, 2025. "Beyond anger and fear: the demobilizing role of sadness in far-right voting in Spain," South European Society and Politics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 413-439, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:fsesxx:v:30:y:2025:i:3:p:413-439
    DOI: 10.1080/13608746.2025.2529211
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13608746.2025.2529211
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13608746.2025.2529211?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:fsesxx:v:30:y:2025:i:3:p:413-439. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/fses .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.