Conversations in Conflict Studies: Ayşenur Değer

A core strategy of the populist radical right is to cultivate resentment toward marginalized groups, such as immigrants, ethnic minorities and women, by portraying them as holding unearned advantages over “the people.” Can drawing attention to economic inequality counter this?

Ayşenur Değer presents pre-registered survey experiments in the U.K. and Turkey, one democratic and one authoritarian context, testing whether making wealth inequality salient reduces resentment toward marginalized groups. She finds that it heightens people's sense of relative deprivation yet lowers resentment toward immigrants and ethnic minorities in the UK and in the pooled sample, though not in Turkey. The findings suggest that messaging on economic inequality, a strategy increasingly used by progressive and left-populist parties, can shift attention away from group conflict, while its reach depends on the political context.

Ayşenur Değer is a comparative political scientist working at the intersection of political behavior and persuasion. Her research examines the socio-economic roots of populist radical right support, and interventions to increase support for egalitarian democracy. She is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the Maxwell School.