The rise of the right-wing and the vote for bolsonaro: reverse causality?

Abstract The prevailing view of the 2018 election is that the Brazilian electorate shifted to the right. In this article, we argue that one of the reasons explaining this increase in voters’ ideological self-positioning as right-wing can be attributed to the decision-making process of the vote itself, and not necessarily to an increase in the conservative electoral base. To test this hypothesis, we carried out two survey experiments that indicate that simple information about the position of President Bolsonaro had the following effects on respondents’ attitudes: 1) an increase in the percentage of those who declared a political position (right-wing or leftist); 2) a self-placement or identification, either swinging to the left or to the right, conditional on the voter’s predisposition to support or oppose Bolsonaro. The existence of a reverse causality effect indicates an alternative and complementary interpretation of the relationship between ideology and the electoral process, thus having important implications for understanding the current context of Brazilian elections.