Populist Attitudes

Populist attitudes represent the individual level support for populism. The study of populist attitudes is interdisciplinary with contributions from across the social sciences. Empirical research is dominated by survey research, including studies working on a measurement for populist attitudes. This research suggests that populist attitudes are shared by substantial minorities across different societies including in South America and Asia. Studies have explored predictors of populist attitudes, for example, personality traits, socio-demographic variables, and populist communication as well as on its consequences, such as the acceptance of democratic decisions and voting for populist parties. Thus far, evidence is mixed regarding the question of whether populism poses a threat to democracy or if it works as a democratic corrective. The entry offers further insights into the different research fields related to populist attitudes and discusses limitations and possible future research avenues.