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Facing a dark future: Young people’s future anxiety and political attitudes in the UK and Greece

adolescence
emotion regulation
future anxiety
ideology
political attitudes

Borghi, O., Niraki, M., Seremeta, E., Smets, K., & Tsakiris, M. (2025). Facing a dark future: Young people’s future anxiety and political attitudes in the UK and Greece. Advances.in/Psychology, 2, e555124. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00042

Authors
Affiliations

Olaf Borghi

Royal Holloway, University of London

Melina Niraki

Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

Ermioni Seremeta

Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

Kaat Smets

Royal Holloway, University of London

Manos Tsakiris

Royal Holloway, University of London

Published

October 2025

Doi

10.31234/osf.io/sjfxq_v3

Other details

Young people grow up in times of multiple crises—from the aftermath of Covid-19, economic turmoil, to the outlook of climate change. Reports indicate that many young people feel anxious about their future. But how is future anxiety associated with young people’s political views?

Abstract

Amidst multiple crises, converging reports indicate that young people are anxious about the future. Yet, how future anxiety relates to young people’s political attitudes and actively open-minded thinking remains unknown, presenting a critical research gap in times of democratic backsliding and political polarisation. In this study, we provide first empirical insights into the associations between future anxiety, political attitudes, and actively open-minded thinking among young people, considering the moderating role of emotion regulation strategies that could affect how future anxiety is cognitively processed and thus alter its implications. Our pre-registered analyses used original cross-sectional data from an online survey of N = 988 UK adolescents (aged 16-21), with additional conceptual replications in data from N = 997 Greek adolescents that included a subset of the measures from the primary UK sample. Results indicate that future anxiety is most strongly associated with stronger support for democratic principles in our UK sample, an association weaker among adolescents high in cognitive reappraisal. In both the UK and Greece, future anxiety was also associated with higher political participation. Follow-up analyses revealed notable gender differences: only among young men future anxiety was associated with more right-conservative ideological self-classification, a pattern replicated across both countries. These cross-sectional findings provide an important empirical foundation for research on the psychological contributors to and consequences of democratic backsliding and the development of political attitudes in times of multiple crises.

Citation


@article{borghietal_2025a,
  title = {Facing a Dark Future: {{Young}} People's Future Anxiety and Political Attitudes in the {{UK}} and {{Greece}}},
  shorttitle = {Facing a Dark Future},
  author = {Borghi, Olaf and Niraki, Melina and Seremeta, Ermioni and Smets, Kaat and Tsakiris, Manos},
  year = 2025,
  month = oct,
  journal = {advances.in/psychology},
  volume = {2},
  pages = {e555124},
  publisher = {Advances.in},
  issn = {2976-937X},
  doi = {10.56296/aip00042},
  copyright = {All rights reserved},
  langid = {english}
}