Populism and Cultural Shocks

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Cultural Shocks and Exposure to Populist Rhetoric

In this line of research, we evaluate how identity, culture, and populist rhetoric interact with the effects of economic shocks on trust in political institutions.

We will test several interventions that change the salience of identitarian factors and generate different framings of how economic shocks affect groups. We will examine the effects of multiple cultural factors, including family, nationality, regional identities, and ethnic origin.

Finally, we examine the role of populist rhetoric as a key mediating factor in generating dynamics of distrust, studying whether the supply of populist messaging may channel moderate levels of disappointment in the political system towards a more pronounced anti-system feeling.