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• About the ideological dimensions of fear

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  Beáta Kovács

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  The main goal of of my research is to explore the right and left dimensions of the phenomenon of fear. I would like to argue that the categories of left and right continue to be defining aspects of political identities, and by mapping their emotional structure we can better understand the current relevance of these ideologies. The studies that have examined political fears have mostly linked fear to conservativism and right wing-populism, while the fears of the left have generated far less scientific interest. A study also wants to respond to this research gap. In this paper, I would like to present the potential connection points between fear and ideological identity. The structure of the study is as follows: first, I outline the relationship between ideology and moral emotions, and then I analyze fear as a moral emotion. After that I present how fear is connected to conservatism and right-wing populism, and then I try to illustrate the ideological differences with two types of politically relevant fear, i.e. climate anxiety and migration-related fear. Finally, I add context to these specific political fears that is I also interpret them in the Hungarian political system. The study ends with drawing conclusions and outlining future research directions.