TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychological similarities and dissimilarities between left-wing and right-wing populists
T2 - Evidence from a nationally representative survey in France
AU - Vasilopoulos, Pavlos
AU - Jost, John T.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Research in political science has focused on definitions of populism, platforms of populist parties, and demographic characteristics of those who support populist parties. Yet little is known about the psychological characteristics of populist supporters and how they might differ as a function of left-right ideology. Using a measure of populist attitudes in general, we investigated the role of Big Five personality traits as well as authoritarianism, social dominance, and system justification in a nationally representative sample of French respondents. We observed meaningful variability in relations between psychological characteristics and the endorsement of populist attitudes as a function of left-right ideological orientation, as well as variability in the psychological predictors of support for Jean Luc Mélenchon (a left-wing populist) and Marine LePen (a right-wing populist). We conclude that left-wing and right-wing populists are not the same, psychologically speaking, and that the differences are consistent with the distinction between inclusionary and exclusionary forms of populism.
AB - Research in political science has focused on definitions of populism, platforms of populist parties, and demographic characteristics of those who support populist parties. Yet little is known about the psychological characteristics of populist supporters and how they might differ as a function of left-right ideology. Using a measure of populist attitudes in general, we investigated the role of Big Five personality traits as well as authoritarianism, social dominance, and system justification in a nationally representative sample of French respondents. We observed meaningful variability in relations between psychological characteristics and the endorsement of populist attitudes as a function of left-right ideological orientation, as well as variability in the psychological predictors of support for Jean Luc Mélenchon (a left-wing populist) and Marine LePen (a right-wing populist). We conclude that left-wing and right-wing populists are not the same, psychologically speaking, and that the differences are consistent with the distinction between inclusionary and exclusionary forms of populism.
KW - Authoritarianism
KW - Big five personality traits
KW - Populism
KW - System justification
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jrp.2020.104004
DO - 10.1016/j.jrp.2020.104004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089886842
SN - 0092-6566
VL - 88
JO - Journal of Research in Personality
JF - Journal of Research in Personality
M1 - 104004
ER -