The (in)effectiveness of populist rhetoric: a conjoint experiment of campaign messaging

2023/11/23 by Yaoyao Dai, Alexander Kustov · 1 voice · 19 citations
Social Sciences · #Computer science #Ideology #Law #Linguistics #Media Influence and Politics #Political science #Politics #Populism #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Rhetoric #Set (abstract data type) #Social Media and Politics #Sociology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/psrm.2023.55

published in Political Science Research and Methods 12(4), 849-856 (Cambridge University Press)

openalex publication_date 2023/11/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Abstract Is populism electorally effective and, if so, why? Scholars agree that populism is a set of people-centric, anti-pluralist, and anti-elitist ideas that can be combined with various ideological positions. It is difficult, yet important, to disentangle populism from its hosting ideology in evaluating populism's effectiveness and its potential conditional effects on the hosting ideology. We conduct a novel US conjoint experiment asking respondents to evaluate pairs of realistic campaign messages with varying populism-related messages and hosting policy positions given by hypothetical primary candidates. Although party-congruent policy positions are expectedly much more popular, we find that none of the populist features have an independent or combined effect on candidate choice.

Citations

• The Populist Zeitgeist
• Equivalence Testing for Psychological Research: A Tutorial

Cited by

• Simply Speaking? Language Complexity among (Non-)Populist Actors in Parliamentary Debates
• Does mainstream populism work? Populist rhetoric and the electoral fortunes of mainstream parties
• Unaffected polarization? Populism and affective polarization in comparative perspective
• A populist incitement? Populism, attack rhetoric, and support for political violence

Discussions

• Populist politicians are successful because voters agree with their policy positions, not because of their populist rhetoric, even when voters hold populist attitudes, finds Dai & Kustov. doi.org/10 [bsky, 48 points, 0 comments]

Related

• Let's talk populist? A survey experiment on effects of (non-) populist discourse on vote choice
• Does mainstream populism work? Populist rhetoric and the electoral fortunes of mainstream parties
• Populist Words Speak Louder? Ideology-Inconsistent Personalization and Voting for Populist Candidates
• Inviting the Populists to the Party: Populist Appeals in Presidential Primaries
• The Populist Style in American Politics: Presidential Campaign Discourse, 1952–1996