Psychological similarities and dissimilarities between left-wing and right-wing populists: Evidence from a nationally representative survey in France

Pavlos Vasilopoulos, John T. Jost

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number104004
JournalJournal of Research in Personality
Volume88
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2020

Keywords

  • Authoritarianism
  • Big five personality traits
  • Populism
  • System justification

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • General Psychology

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