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The psychological roots of populist voting: Evidence from the United States, the Netherlands and Germany
Author(s) -
BAKKER BERT N.,
ROODUIJN MATTHIJS,
SCHUMACHER GIJS
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6765.12121
Subject(s) - agreeableness , ideology , populism , voting , personality , social psychology , big five personality traits , authoritarianism , preference , voting behavior , democracy , political science , politics , political economy , psychology , economics , law , microeconomics , extraversion and introversion
What are the psychological roots of support for populist parties or outfits such as the Tea Party, the Dutch Party for Freedom or Germany's Left Party? Populist parties have as a common denominator that they employ an anti‐establishment message, which they combine with some ‘host’ ideology. Building on the congruency model of political preference, it is to be expected that a voter's personality should match with the message and position of his or her party. This article theorises that a low score on the personality trait Agreeableness matches the anti‐establishment message and should predict voting for populist parties. Evidence is found for this hypothesis in the United States, the Netherlands and Germany. The relationship between low Agreeableness and voting for populist parties is robust, controlling for other personality traits, authoritarianism, sociodemographic characteristics and ideology. Thus, explanations of the success of populism should take personality traits into account.