People with anxious tendencies are more likely to support left-wing economic policy

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People with anxious tendencies are more likely to support left-wing economic policy

by<br>Eric W. Dolan

January 6, 2026

Reading Time: 6 mins read

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New research provides insight into the psychological underpinnings of political ideology. The findings suggest that individuals who are prone to anxiety are more likely to support left-wing economic policies, particularly when they feel socially excluded. This tendency appears to stem from a deep-seated human need for community support during times of vulnerability. The study was published in the British Journal of Political Science.

Political scientists and psychologists have long sought to understand the relationship between personality traits and political beliefs. A common perspective in the field has historically suggested that right-wing beliefs serve as a coping mechanism for fearful or anxious people. Theories posited that conservative ideologies provided structure and certainty that appealed to those with sensitive dispositions.

However, recent data has complicated this picture. Surveys frequently show that people who identify as liberals or support left-wing parties report higher levels of distress and negative emotions than their conservative counterparts.

"There’s a very entrenched idea in my subfield (political psychology) that anxiety makes people more conservative/right-wing. The idea is that conservative ideas are more comforting than liberal ideas because they provide simple, neat answers to questions about life and society," said study author Adam R. Panish, a PhD candidate at Stony Brook University.

"So if you’re psychologically predisposed to anxiety or are temporarily anxious, you’ll like conservative ideas more. This idea goes all the way back to the 1940s, when social scientists were trying to make sense of Nazism using Freud’s ideas about repression and anxiety. It’s still one of the first things that most students read about in political psychology courses."

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"But around 2010, political psychologists started publishing modern high quality data that showed the opposite — anxious people were scoring much higher on measures of left-wing attitudes, particularly economic attitudes. So I wanted to try to understand why we were seeing results that are the opposite of what longstanding theories would predict. At the same time, people on social media started talking about the rise of anxiety and depression among young liberals in 2022. So it seemed like a good time to take a closer look."

The researchers proposed the "social support hypothesis." This framework looks at political preferences through the lens of evolutionary psychology. For early humans, survival depended entirely on the support of the group. In a foraging environment, injury or illness could be fatal without the care and resource sharing of others. Consequently, the human mind likely evolved to perceive social exclusion as a severe threat to survival.

Modern individuals might interpret state-provided economic support as a contemporary equivalent of tribal care. If this is true, people who are sensitive to threats—specifically those with high anxiety—should gravitate toward policies that ensure material security when they feel their social safety net is lacking.

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To test this hypothesis, the researchers utilized data from four large-scale, representative surveys. These included the American National Election Studies, the Cooperative Election Study, and The American Panel Survey from the United States, as well as the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences from the Netherlands. The combined dataset included responses from nearly 18,000 participants.

The researchers employed specific measures to isolate the relevant personality traits. While the broad trait of neuroticism encompasses various negative emotions, the researchers distinguished between two of its primary facets: anxiety and emotional volatility.

Anxiety refers to the tendency to feel vulnerable and worried in response to threats. Volatility refers to irritability and mood swings. The researchers anticipated that only anxiety would predict support for redistribution, as it is the facet connected to feelings of neediness and the desire for protection.

Economic attitudes were measured by asking participants about their support for various government interventions. These included increasing taxes on the wealthy, government spending on healthcare and unemployment, and federal job guarantees.

To measure social exclusion, the surveys asked respondents about the size of their support networks. For...