Facts against femonationalism: how to stop radical right normalisation

How can liberal democratic actors counter the normalisation of the radical right? While much research documents how radical right ideology and anti-immigration positions have moved into the political mainstream across many Western democracies, far less is known about the counter-strategies that can be used to combat the normalisation of exclusionary policy agendas.

In this seminar, Katharina Lawall, Quantitative Social Scientist, will present the design and findings of a study that tests the effectiveness of different forms of counterspeech against a prominent radical-right normalisation strategy: femonationalism, which presents an anti-immigration position through the more acceptable frame of gender equality.

Katharina will delve into the experiment, in which nearly 4,000 German adults were exposed to anti-immigration rhetoric with a gender-equality justification in a short, news-style video, followed by alternative rebuttals, with the findings highlighting fact-based counterspeech as most effective for reducing support for femonationalist and anti-immigrant views.

Register to join on Zoom: zoom.us/meeting/register/pbFSmnaxQcq9n70pS2PBZA