Our results may also shed light on the rise of right‐leaning politicians in a variety of countries, including the United States, Italy, Canada, Hungary, Czechia, Sweden, Finland, and Croatia, among others (Coi
2024). Increased economic competition due to immigration and inflation is correlated with the rise in populism (Rico and Anduiza
2019), and competition is associated with high T (Dabbs and Dabbs
2000). This relationship suggests a biological mechanism may have contributed to movements to the political right. Relatedly, the increase in populist leaders has been associated with criticism of leftist political parties that emphasize future concerns, such as the environment or climate, rather than present needs that are a source of stress for middle‐ to low‐income males who traditionally voted for left‐leaning parties (Marquardt and Lederer
2022). Stress can increase endogenous T, and our results suggest that this could swing weakly left‐leaning voters towards more right‐leaning populist leaders (Buzogány and Mohamad‐Klotzbach
2021). The rise of populism has also coincided with a secular increase in the number of single and never‐married males in the US and other developed countries (Fry
2023). In the US, for example, the proportion of never‐married adults has increased from 15% in 1960 to 31% in 2021 (Marino
2023). Single men, compared to men with romantic partners, more intensely compete for mates, take more risks, engage in more violent behaviors, and have more sexual partners—all factors that are associated with high T (Arnocky et al.
2018; Wilson and Daly
1985; Haderxhanaj et al.
2014). The increase in single males, along with the red shift we demonstrated, may be another reason for the rise in right‐leaning populist leaders.