The Impact of Politicians’ Populist Performance on Perceived Political Authenticity

Stein, Haye; Lübke, Simon und Engelmann, Ines (2025): The Impact of Politicians’ Populist Performance on Perceived Political Authenticity. In: Polity, Vol. 57, No. 2: pp. 282-305

Abstract

The perceived authenticity of populist politicians has often been mentioned as a key driver of their success. Populist politicians are said to appear as (more) authentic because they convey a sense of immediacy and closeness to the public. Yet, the assumption that a populist performance creates more perceived authenticity among citizens has rarely been tested empirically. Therefore, this study examines whether a populist performance by politicians leads to higher authenticity ratings for politicians. We conducted a 2x2x2 between-subject online experiment in Germany (N = 1,911) to test how features of a populist performance (content, language, and clothing style) affect perceived political authenticity. The results show that populist content (i.e., anti-elitism) does not increase respondents’ perceptions of political authenticity, while a populist (i.e., colloquial, emotional) language and a populist (i.e., informal) clothing style do. Hence, we conclude that elements of the populist performance create a sense of authenticity and are linked to popularity, although this link does not suffice as an explanation for populist voting behavior. Nevertheless, the results imply that politicians’ demeanor contributes more strongly to the construction of political authenticity than their political demands.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Keywords: authenticity; populism; experiment; politicians; social media
• Faculties: Social Sciences > Department of Communications and Media (IfKW)
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 380 Commerce, communications and transportation
• Language: English