Relationship Between Populist Sentiment and Misperceptions in the 2016 Election for U.S. President

Abstract

Despite widespread recognition of the pervasiveness of populist messages during the 2016 presidential campaign, the populist beliefs of voters are understudied, and what role these attitudes may play in accepting false assertions is unknown. Survey results post-election and one year later indicate that two aspects of populism that characterized voting for Donald Trump — mistrust of experts and national affiliation — persisted one year into the Trump presidency. These attitudes were associated with being misaligned with experts on the accuracy of various campaign and immediate post-election statements, as was reliance on a smaller number of news sources. Populist attitudes were a predictor of candidate vote in the 2016 election, even beyond the white, rural, lower education demographics. A contrasting finding between this study’s results and a prior study’s pre-election populism results suggests that populist feelings of voter disenfranchisement and disempowerment may change when a populist candidate is elected.