Since his inauguration a few weeks ago, President Donald Trump has been released by the executive’s enthusiasm, including federal jobs and financing, withdrawal from the world. But others seem to be confused. According to political scientists, at least some of the behaviors that pursue this confusion can be complex with the senses of people who are lost in society. And in that sense, it is associated with increasing inequality and globalization.
Kevin Arceneaux, a political scientist at a research university in Paris, France, said, “Confusion is a strategy used by some people to explain the loss of status. “Their reaction to it is to cause a problem by turning the cart to the head and trying to reclaim their place.”
Arceneaux said most people prefer order. However, about 15 %of the US population are attracted to chaos or “desire for a new start Order destruction Arceneaux and his team were in 2021 The philosophical transaction of the Royal Society B. The team developed the scale to measure people’s needs for chaos and then came to the conclusion. About 5,000 Americans “I think society should burn on the ground.”
Arceneaux’s Chaos-Reeting Behavior (5 %of the 5,000 Americans who participated in the survey) seems to be the highest in creating a mayhem without worrying who is playing in this process. Meanwhile, about 10 %of people investigated desire confusion, but about 10 %of those who lacked intentions said. They just think that society has broken too much. Arceneaux said, “These people want society to start again, but they don’t want to harm people.
Science news Dialogue with Arceneaux allows you to play at this moment in the US and world history to understand the role of an individual in chaos. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
SN: Why did the team began to study chaos?
Arceneaux: Perhaps in early 2017, we decided to start this research project to study wrong information. What was in the news at that time was that social media was used to circulate many false stories. It was that we were interested in studying. And we concepted this concept [as] “I need chaos.”
We have begun to dig into academic literature on social alienation. [and] Seeking status. The idea here is that there is an individual who feels like losing his position. And this is a perception. These do not have to be actually poor. They can actually go well in the absolute sense. This individual’s response to the recognized loss is a problem.
Then we… We have developed scale and have researched many pilots. And what we showed Series These individuals are clearly motivated to share the wrong information, which actually causes problems, and does not care if it is true or not.
Thankfully, it is not a group of big people. At the same time, many people do not need to make chaos.
SN: We analyzed how the necessity of chaos is related to certain personality characteristics. According to your work, what is characterized by people looking for chaos?
Arceneaux: There are two types of people who are chaotic. Small groups get the highest score on scale. They want the two society to burn on the ground and destroy beautiful things. Another group that we called “reconstruction” grows a little bigger. They tended to say an example of burning an organ on the ground. But they do not want malice. They do not drive the nation and the same thing from natural disasters.
People looking for chaos seem to be driven by self. They feel as respect as they feel. But the need for chaos is not a personality characteristic, and in every context, people will find chaos. Instead, psychologists are called character adaptation. This adaptation helps people respond to specific situations. At present, elements such as inequality and globalization are making life more unstable. Therefore, people with a darker personality character can respond if they are confused.
Both groups [of chaos-seekers] It is led by political ideology. In 2016 and 2020, high scores were not related to Donald Trump. We have a preliminary study that is more likely to vote for Donald Trump in 2024. We do not know what has changed.
SN: According to your study, people looking for chaos tilt white and men. Why do you think so?
Arceneaux: If you look at black individuals in samples I am worried about the group Personal more than white individuals. It is much more focused on this concept of historically connected fate, and what happens in the group affects individuals.
Among black men and black women -it looks like a white woman. If the group feels like it is lost, there is a negative correlation with the necessity of chaos. And this seems to go with what we know in the “connected destiny” literature. You are a few of the nations you feel like you have lost. Making chaos will not help you. It makes you target.
White male as demographic statistics It shows the strongest correlation Between state loss and the need for chaos. This fits our theory. Motivating people is a personal status loss. White man [more often] Manage them to lose individually.
SN: Can this theory reveal about the current US situation?
Arceneaux: There is no paper yet. however [political scientist] Roy Truex in Princeton [University]We conducted research in the 2024 election, which began at the end of July 2024. At the end of July 2024, we surveyed 500 people from all over the United States every week until the day of inauguration. Immediately after the election, I think we have investigated every day.
We included a chaos scale for the survey, questions for measuring state loss, and questions about people’s absolute conditions. We found that people who think they are low in confusion are more likely to be needed for confusion. This is consistent with the theory.
Social psychology has an old literature on the concept of deprivation of relatives. When people think about their way of behavior, they get this thought when they think about others. You are my boss and you will say, “I will give you a 5 % impression.” But when you find that you have given my executives a 10 % increase, I feel like it’s broken. It is a classic opponent deprivation. But what’s interesting is that even those who believe that they have a high status are to increase the scores that need to be chaotic. Their interests seem to be losing their benefits.
This happens when you have a high level of inequality. At the floor, it is spreading the relative deprivation. But it also means that people at the top can be very worried about losing those things. This is because the alternative to inequality is to share. Think about the debate over the US in the United States. The people at the top will be curious. What does it mean to create a more comprehensive space?
When I saw this data, I thought this was a great explanation for why we married the world’s two forces.. On the other hand, there are people who think the deck is piled up on them. And for them, it is reasonable to restart or remove the system. But Elon Musk is the richest man in the world and Donald Trump is not poor. In Europe, many people who are led by populists are not bad. One of the possible is that these people want to recognize that they have benefited and want to maintain it. It created a strange Bedfellows.
SN: In your opinion, can people do something to relieve chaos?
Arceneaux: I think we should listen to some of these people. It’s easy to ignore when people say, “Look, I’m ruined.”
Many people… “What are these liberal democratic institutions doing for me?” What you get prefers a powerful leader who will start and clean. And we see it from left and right. When Hugo Chavez came in from Venezuela, he was not on the right.
We often think about this in the concept that there is no problem with democratic institutions. But I think people should pay a little attention to why people understand why they are unhappy.
