Personality Traits and Populist Attitudes in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic

The study of populism in Portugal has mostly been focused on the supply side, disregarding, to a large extent, the analysis of individual’s support for populism. This study uses data collected during the Covid-19 pandemic to analyze the relationship between populist attitudes and citizens’ personality traits. Controlling for political efficacy, party identification and socio-demographic characteristics, the article concludes that those supporting populism tend to be mostly conscientious. In addition, such citizens have low political efficacy, and tend to be male and older. More importantly, levels of populist attitudes tend to derive from identification with parties with a populist rhetoric, which may intensify populist attitudes.