… Research finds that populist voters do not have much in common — at least not along traditional political lines. …
In a recent study, we found that supporters of populists do have something in common: their personalities. Psychologists distinguish among five general traits that determine our personalities: openness to experience, extroversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness. This last personality trait — agreeableness — is what matters when it comes to populism.
Those who score high on agreeableness tend to trust others and to be modest, tolerant and cooperative. Those who score low are egoistic, cynical, distrustful and inclined to believe in conspiracy theories. Such low scorers on agreeableness can be highly susceptible to the populist anti-establishment message, because a message of distrust toward the political elite matches with their own cynical personalities. CONT.
Bert N. Bakker, Matthijs Rooduijn & Gijs Schumacher (U. of Amsterdam), Monkey Cage