Economic Distress and Populism: Examining the Role of Identity Threat and Feelings of Social Exclusion

Populism has been a major political phenomenon in liberal democracies throughout the last decade. Focusing on economic distress as one of basic triggers populism, we proposed model integrating individual‐level indices and status‐based identity threat (i.e., frustration motives) predictors populism. We conducted two survey studies operationalizing populism an thin ideology among members general French population (Study 1: N = 458; Study 2: 1,050). Structural equation models supported partial mediator links between relative deprivation 1). Additional analyses revealed frustrated belonging feelings social exclusion) central motive this pattern. Reproducing same with instead global‐identity gave similar results (Studies 1 2). These findings provide first evidence implicating threat—and particular—in development populist showed how motives are related to pattern that predicts