Social Psychological Contributions to the Study of Populism

Although many historical and current examples of populist movements exist, consensus on the operationalization of “populism” does not. However, noteworthy similarities among populist movements have been identified over the years, and this convergence helps establish the essence of the construct. These involve the perception of relative deprivation among those susceptible to populist appeals; populism’s attraction to “ordinary people”; their insecurity in the struggle against the political, social, or economic elite; and the importance of a prototypical leader who can organize and give voice to felt grievances. Such movements may go nowhere, or they may change societies fundamentally. These features make the study of populism a ripe target for the methods and theories of social psychology. We focus on how and when populist groups, as insurgents, create change. Our historical overview emphasizes American populism, because unlike European or Central and South American populist groups, the American brands rely on changing political systems from within the two-party system. In our analysis, we rely heavily on the theoretical perspectives of social identity theory to demonstrate the social and political context in which people struggle to defend their identities. In addition, we appeal to features of leniency-contract theory’s analysis of minority influence effects. Finally, we integrate source credibility research from the persuasion literature with social identity conceptions to propose how populist groups change the identities of partisans by polarizing and homogenizing identities to form cohesive and unitary groups whose power often exceeds their numbers.