Emotions and Populist Attitudes in Contemporary Chile
Recent elections in Europe and America have shown an increase in the vote obtained by populist parties and candidates. Chile is no exception. In the 2017 presidential election a right-wing populist candidate won almost 8 percent of the vote, far more than was expected. In this paper, we examine the magnitude of the populist demand in Chile, and argue that populist attitudes are positively related to both anger and fear toward candidates. These two emotions, are powerful predictors of stronger populist attitudes among voters, who also vote in higher proportion for populist candidates. Results are based in a survey conducted after the second round of the Chilean presidential election.