{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]],"date-time":"2026-05-26T05:05:52Z","timestamp":1779771952747,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":152,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]],"date-time":"2026-05-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1779753600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Sociol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Although the success of the\n                      <jats:italic>Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland<\/jats:italic>\n                      (AfD) is nationwide, the party received twice as many votes in East compared to West Germany in recent elections. While scholars have identified numerous general predictors of populist support, research explaining the East\u2013West gap in AfD support remains inconclusive, largely relies on election data through 2021, and rarely integrates competing explanatory frameworks.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Using representative survey data from late 2024 (\n                      <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 1,000), structural equation modeling was applied to make systematic, comparative claims about demand-side, voter-level explanatory factors from multiple theoretical frameworks.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>AfD vote intention was predicted by almost all examined socioeconomic, psychological and cultural variables. Moreover, East Germans reported lower income and stronger relative deprivation, distrust of state institutions, political conspiracy mentality, use of alternative political media, populist\/nativist attitudes, national identification, and importance of being German than West Germans. Yet the East\u2013West gap in AfD vote intention was mainly accounted for by political distrust, alternative political media use, and populist\/nativist attitudes, whereas socioeconomic and psychological factors did not explain the gap from a cross-sectional perspective.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This calls for further work on causally linking these frameworks to clarify demand-side mechanisms behind voting for populist radical right parties and the German East\u2013West gap thereof.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1759913","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]],"date-time":"2026-05-26T04:43:48Z","timestamp":1779770628000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["How to explain the German East\u2013West divide in support of a populist radical right party (AfD): mapping socioeconomic, psychological, and cultural explanatory factors from a demand-side, voter-level perspective"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Hermann","family":"Siebel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Heterogeneity and Education Research, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin","place":["Berlin, Germany"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"G\u00fclru","family":"Horozo\u011flu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Heterogeneity and Education Research, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin","place":["Berlin, Germany"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ursula","family":"Kessels","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Heterogeneity and Education Research, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin","place":["Berlin, Germany"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"586","DOI":"10.1037\/0278-6133.19.6.586","article-title":"Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: preliminary data in healthy, White women","volume":"19","author":"Adler","year":"2000","journal-title":"Health Psychol."},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"185","DOI":"10.1016\/j.paid.2016.02.072","article-title":"Psychological bases of support for radical right parties","volume":"96","author":"Aichholzer","year":"2016","journal-title":"Pers. 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