Labelling affects agreement with political statements of right-wing populist parties.

Henrike Neumann,Stefan Pfattheicher,Isabel Thielmann,Shang E Ha

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239772

Henrike Neumann, Stefan Pfattheicher + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239772

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Nov 11, 2020
Citations: 1	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Aarhus University, University of Koblenz and Landau

Abstract

In light of the recent rise of right-wing populist parties across Europe, it is an intriguing question under which conditions people agree with right-wing political statements. The present study investigates whether mere labelling of political statements as endorsed by a right-wing populist party influences people's agreement with such statements. In the study (pre-registered; N = 221 German voters), it is shown than that supporters of the right-wing populist party indicated higher agreement with the statements when they were labelled as being endorsed by the party (vs. not labelled), whereas non-supporters indicated lower agreement with the labelled than with the non-labelled statements. We conclude that labelling of the very same political statements changes voters' agreement with these statements. The results imply that rather than (dis)agreeing with the content of the statements per se, people may (dis)agree with right-wing populist statements because they come from a specific source (i.e., the right-wing populist party).

Highlights

In recent years, right-wing populist parties have noticeably been on the rise in countries across Europe, significantly increasing their vote share in many national and regional elections [1, 2]
We investigate whether explicitly labelling political statements that were endorsed by a right-wing populist party as coming from this party or not affects individuals’ agreement with these statements
When the very same apple juice was labelled as coming from a local farmer vs. a big brand manufacturer, participants rated the taste of the apple juice better [3]

Summary

Introduction

Right-wing populist parties have noticeably been on the rise in countries across Europe, significantly increasing their vote share in many national and regional elections [1, 2]. In ongoing debates, both scholars and politicians discuss why voters might agree with statements coming from right-wing populist parties. We examine whether agreement with the very same statement changes when a right-wing populist party label is affixed to it (i.e., varying the source information) and whether individuals’ political orientation moderates corresponding labelling effects on agreement.

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Conclusion