Bringing political psychology into the study of populism

Abstract

Although it is true that populism is a contested concept in the social sciences, there is increasing consensus around the use of an ideational definition of populism within the political science literature. This definition has the advantage of providing a clear concept that can be employed to empirically study not only the supply side but also the demand side of the populist phenomenon. Not by chance, an increasing number of scholars are working with a set of survey items to measure the presence and relevance of populist ideas at the mass level, something that is usually conceived of as populist attitudes. Despite the incremental study of populist attitudes in political science, only very limited links with the political psychology literature have been established so far. In this short piece, I address this shortcoming by discussing two avenues for further research on populism that seek to promote much-needed dialogue between comparative politics and political psychology: political identities and conspiracy theories. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms’.

Populist attitudes and conspiratorial thinking

“…Despite increasing interest in studying populism and conspiracy theories (e.g., Bergmann, 2018; Bergmann and Butter, 2020), there is almost no research that tries to address this topic by empirically examining the link between populist attitudes and conspiratorial thinking. 3 The family resemblance between populism and conspiracy theories may lead us to expect a correlation between the two at the attitudinal level (Rovira Kaltwasser, 2021). In the case of Turkey, we predict that supporters of the incumbent populist leader Erdoğan and his party, the AKP, are more likely to endorse conspiracy theories that focus on foreign and global forces.…”

Who is who in fact-checked conspiracy theories? Disseminators, sources, and the struggle for authority in polarized environments

“…Accordingly, mainstream journalism in Brazil has even questioned the reliability of some data provided by the government, accusing authorities of issuing misleading information or withholding data. 45 Conspiracy theories are particularly useful to populist leaders because these politicians support the idea that powerful forces are preventing the government from performing well (Mudde, 2004;Mazzoleni, 2008;Kaltwasser, 2021). Part of the conspiracy theories examined in our investigation attacked leaders opposing Bolsonaro.…”

Computational and neurocognitive approaches to the political brain: key insights and future avenues for political neuroscience

“…Finally, the theme issue culminates with an opinion piece by Rovira Kaltwasser [ 21 ] focused on how to bridge political psychology with the political study of populism. Highlighting the value of interdisciplinarity between political science, policy and psychology, Rovira Kaltwasser [ 21 ] discusses how the psychology of political identities and conspiracy theories can inform—and be informed by—scholarship on populism. The biological sciences and the political sciences can therefore be harmonized in order to illuminate the roots of us-versus-them mentality, system justification and voter mobilization.…”

“…Toxic ideologies become internalized by individuals through cyclical [ 15 ] and addictively self-reinforcing [ 18 ] mechanisms, and it is these socio-cognitive loops that practitioners and equality advocates may need to break in order to achieve ideological open-mindedness and receptivity to evidence. Social influence can thus be a force for good—regardless of baseline ideological inclinations [ 17 ]—when it is used to create balanced information ecosystems that are resilient to misinformation and populism [ 21 ].…”