Everything for the people, but trust? Exploring the link between populist attitudes and social trust in Italy, Portugal, and Spain

Abstract

AbstractWhile it is largely unquestioned that populist individuals are more likely to distrust politics and politicians, the empirical association between populist attitudes and social trust is far less clear. In principle, the people‐centrist component of populism could trigger higher levels of social trust among individuals with stronger populist attitudes. Empirically, however, the relationship seems more complex and could be influenced by the boundaries of the group identified as ‘the people’. This paper examines this association using data from three South European countries: Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The main results show that stronger populist attitudes correlate with lower levels of generalized social trust but with higher levels of trust towards the group identified with ‘the people’. These results underline the conceptual consistence of populist attitudes and help to theorize about the effects of widespread populist attitudes.