Voting for the AfD makes you unhappy

People who turn to the German far-right party, AfD, experience a deterioration in their well-being, according to a new WZB study. For the first time, WZB economist Maja Adena and her colleague Steffen Huck have demonstrated that the negative rhetoric of right-wing populist parties such as the AfD can reduce personal life satisfaction. New AfD supporters in particular are less satisfied.

In a large survey study with over 5,000 participants in four waves over the years 2019 to 2021, the researchers wanted to find out whether there is a connection between life satisfaction and preferences for political parties. A clear pattern emerges: people who support the AfD are less satisfied with their personal and financial situation than supporters of other parties. This correlation is particularly pronounced for new AfD supporters. By contrast, those who turn away from the party feel an improvement in their well-being.

The correlation between well-being and support for the AfD is strong and cannot be explained by socio-economic variables such as income or education. It is also of significant economic magnitude. Estimates by the authors suggest that a new supporter of the AfD would need an additional monthly income of around 2,500 euros to regain the same level of well-being that they felt before deciding to support the AfD.

Adena and Huck used two experiments to investigate whether the decision to support AfD causes people to feel less satisfied. In the first experiment, they surveyed voters before, during, and after the AfD federal party conference in November 2020. In particular, new supporters of the AfD who took part in the survey during the federal party conference reported a lower level of well-being than new AfD supporters who took part in the survey before or after the party conference.

In the second experiment conducted in 2021, participants were again asked to answer questions about their well-being. In addition, they were asked questions about the party they support. The researchers divided the participants into two groups. One group had to answer questions about the party before the questions about well-being. For the other group, the order of the question blocks was reversed.

The same pattern emerges as in the first experiment. New supporters of the AfD who just had to contemplate AfD issues are less satisfied than the control group, which had to answer questions about personal well-being before the questions about AfD issues. No comparable pattern emerges for supporters of other parties. Those who are more aware of their new support for the AfD perceive both their personal and financial circumstances as worse.

The researchers suspect that the negative rhetoric of the AfD is the reason for this causal relationship. Those who turn to the party are more exposed to this negativity, and that is detrimental to their well-being.

The researchers recommend that other parties emphasize positive topics instead of focusing on the AfD's negative topics. ‘Winning back voters successfully requires other, ideally positive, topics,’ says Adena.