Replication Data for: The Effect of Party Identification and Party Cues on Populist Attitudes

In recent years, a wave of populist leaders has emerged in many democratic countries, including the United States. Previous studies have argued that populist rhetoric matters for leaders' electoral support because the public has populist attitudes, which are activated in contexts of failure of democratic governance or economic crises. This paper investigates the opposite causal direction and argues that people's support for populist ideas can be an effect rather than a cause of leaders' electoral support. People who support a candidate due to the candidate's party affiliation or policy position tend to support or oppose populist or anti-populist messages if they learn that the candidate of the party they identify with supports that message. The paper investigates the argument with an experiment that randomly assigns (anti-)populist messages and a cue about the candidate that supports the message. The experiment shows that voters' party identification largely affects support for both populist and anti-populist messages.近年来，包括美国在内的诸多民主国家涌现出一批民粹主义（populist）领袖。过往研究指出，民粹主义言论对领袖的选举支持率具有显著影响，其逻辑在于公众本就持有民粹主义态度，这类态度会在民主治理失效或经济危机的语境下被激活。本文则探讨了反向的因果路径，提出民众对民粹主义理念的支持，实则可能是领袖选举支持率的结果而非成因。那些因政党归属或政策立场而支持某位候选人的选民，当获悉自身认同的政党所支持的候选人表态拥护某一（反）民粹主义（anti-populist）言论时，往往会随之支持或反对该类言论。本文通过一项随机实验验证上述论点：实验中随机分配（反）民粹主义言论以及支持该言论的候选人提示信息。实验结果显示，选民的政党认同（party identification）在极大程度上影响其对民粹主义与反民粹主义言论的支持倾向。