How many different types of populists are there in Germany? An experimental approach with multiple methods

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the demand-side of populism; to this day, many studies implemented variable-centered approaches to investigate populist attitudes. Utilizing a convenient sample of the German voters (N = 839), we adopt a person-centered approach by estimating latent psychological profiles and examining the exchange between the supply and demand side of populism in an experimental setting. After treating the participants with real-life populist slogans in two different demonstration settings (contemporary vs. historical) and comparing them to a control group, we discover that the estimated populist profile is only reactive to the slogan in the contemporary demonstration. This finding expands the ideational approach to populism by showing that the populism's supply demand exchange mechanism is not only context-specific but also sensitive to subjective viewpoints. Acknowledging this person in the context approach contributes to the normative and empirical debates in the field by showing populist attitudes' subjective manifestations.