When you hear “make America great again” you might think of a right wing Trump-supporting populist justifying all sorts of social ills. But we think things are a bit more nuanced! https://twitter.com/easpinfo/status/1247526875783561220

In this new research we ( @LammersJoris) show that people who are nostalgic about the way society used to be value two conflicting aspects of the past: non-political correctness AND politeness and respect. This has implications for political messaging...

When a politician is described as anti-PC (e.g., Trump) nostalgic individuals like that politician because they value the non-PC past. But when a politician is described as polite, nostalgic individuals like that politician too, because they alsovalue the politeness of the past.

We argue that nostalgia isn’t an emotion reserved for the political right, but that it has been used strategically to justify certain populist and right-wing values and beliefs more recently. Nostalgia could just as easily be used to promote other (even conflicting) values.

From Study 2: Nostalgic people like a populist leader more when political (in)correctness of the past is salient than when politness of the past is salient