The private background of populist politicians oftentimes seemingly contradicts the populist ideology - which can be taken up in political communication. Using two experiments (nStudy 1 = 734; nStudy 2 = 568), we investigate the effects of such ideology-inconsistent personalization on the evaluation of and voting for a populist candidate. We manipulate the politician's localness and social class (Study 1) and traditionalism in family life (Study 2). Results reveal a number of effects on candidate evaluation which translated into voting intentions. An upper-class background of the populist politician yielded negative effects, but less so among populist voters. However, references to a cosmopolitan biography decreased perceived trustworthiness among all participants. Surprisingly, a nontraditional (i.e., homosexual) relationship was beneficial for a (female) populist.
CITATION STYLE
Müller, P., & Denner, N. (2021). Populist Words Speak Louder? Ideology-Inconsistent Personalization and Voting for Populist Candidates. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 33(4), 799–817. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edaa042
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