Extreme Political Candidates Mobilize Supporters (and Opponents) More than Moderates Particularly in a Polarized Society

While political candidates differ in how extreme vs. moderate their ideas are, it remains unclear how the extremism of a politician’s agenda impacts voters. To fill this gap, the present research investigated the mobilizing effects of extreme vs. moderate politicians on both supporters and opponents. The results of five preregistered experiments (N = 3,532) showed that, in comparison to moderates, extreme political candidates were more successful in motivating their supporters to get engaged on their behalf. However, they were also more likely to energize their opponents to act against them. We further show that the effect the candidates’ ideological extremism had on their support was positively mediated via higher perceived commitment to their goals, but negatively via lower expectancy of their success. Crucially, we show that social norms moderate the appeal of extreme politicians. Specifically, the advantage of extremists over moderates emerged when the opinions within society were polarized or skewed towards the extremes, but the advantage disappeared under a normal distribution of opinions. Taken together, these studies provide insights into why and when political candidates with extreme views win greater support than moderates.