Opinion Leadership and Political Extremism

An analysis of a survey material with 14,000 respondents from Norway 1984—5 shows a U-shaped relationship between position on a political left-right scale and activity to influence others through personal communication, with the exception of a sharp drop at the extreme left. Various hypotheses attempting to explain this pattern of a left dip are tested and refuted: 1) it does not seem to be the result of sampling or measurement error, 2) it is only to a limited extent explained by the social composition of the extreme left, 3) it is not due to the party composition of the extreme left, but exists within all parties of the left, 4) it is not a symptom of a general withdrawal from political activity, the extreme left does not lag behind in membership in parties or local elected councils, 5) it is not part of a general withdrawal from personal communication, there is no left dip in the proportion of opinion leaders in various non-political areas. Trend data show a changing pattern for the relationship between opinion leadership and political extremism from 1973 to 1989, which corresponds to changes in electoral support for parties of the left and right in Norway.