Description
Book SynopsisHow envy, spite, and the pursuit of admiration influence politics
Why do governments underspend on policies that would make their constituents better off? Why do people participate in contentious politics when they could reap benefits if they were to abstain? In Envy in Politics, Gwyneth McClendon contends that if we want to understand these and other forms of puzzling political behavior, we should pay attention to envy, spite, and the pursuit of admiration--all manifestations of our desire to maintain or enhance our status within groups. Drawing together insights from political philosophy, behavioral economics, psychology, and anthropology, McClendon explores how and under what conditions status motivations influence politics.
Through surveys, case studies, interviews, and an experiment, McClendon argues that when concerns about in-group status are unmanaged by social conventions or are explicitly primed by elites, status motivations can become drivers
Trade Review
"Winner of the Robert E. Lane Award, Political Psychology Section of the American Political Science Association"
"One of Choice Reviews' Outstanding Academic Titles of 2018"
"Envy [in Politics] is a brilliant, thought-provoking book that will be studied and referenced for years to come."---Laura Seay, Washington Post
"Overall, this excellent, eclectic, and thought-provoking book is sure to inspire intense discussion and significant follow-up research."---M.R. Michelson, Choice
"What motivates Donald Trump’s political base . . . [McClendon’s] big insight is that the seething and yearning focuses not on class conflict, but the Joneses. That is, while emotional cues may come from national voices, it’s the people next door who churn minds to the point where their bodies will clamber into the arenas of politics."---Michael Cornfield, The Guardian
