Reply To Safra Et Al.: Lack Of Theoretical Rationale And Selective Analysis Does Not Imply No Strong Evidence

Safra et al. (1) contend that lack of control is not the mechanism for our findings (2); instead, distrust is a better candidate because of its greater explanatory power. There are several issues with their conjecture. First, study 1 was aimed at demonstrating the main effect of economic uncertainty on leader selection based on dominance (Trump) or prestige (Clinton). Therefore, investigating people’s voting intention between Trump and not voting for Trump or Clinton is an irrelevant analysis as not voting for either may imply voting for a third candidate, who may be high or low on dominance. Hence, to infer psychological mechanism from this analysis is misguided. Second, their … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: hkakkar{at}london.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1