PRR parties’ success and political correctness. A Spanish tale about symbolic effects.

Carol Galais (UAB) and Juan Pérez-Rajó (UAB)

14th january 13:00h, Aula 8 Facultat de Ciències Polítiques i Sociologia de la UAB or Teams (link)
Political correctness (PC) has been a controversial academic topic for the last 40 years. More recently, it has also become a political issue able to marshal support for populist radical right parties, which champion instead for political incorrectness. Nevertheless, neither the literature on the individual dimension and measures of PC nor the literature on the symbolic effects of PRR parties have proven that the discourse and practices of such parties can, indeed, undermine PC in citizens’ hearts and minds. This research puts to empirical test the general hypothesis that the relative success of a PRR party can, indeed, change citizens’ attitudes, pushing PRR voters more to the politically incorrect pole. For doing so, we resort to a case of PRR relative success, the Spanish party VOX. Using three different methodological strategies and relying on panel survey data, we find that individuals who have switched their electoral behavior recently to support VOX are more prone to lower their levels of political correctness; this is, to strengthen their perception that PC has gone too far and people get offended too easily. Their opinions about feminism, cultural requirements towards i
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