A Comparative Analysis of Nativist Populist Rhetoric and the Development of a Novel Psychological Intervention Using a Social Identity Approach

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Group identities are an important part of how we view our social world. It can be good to be part of a group, whether a local community or a nation. They can be an important part of how we gain meaning in our lives. However, the value we attach to our group identities means they can also be used for influence by skilled speakers and writers to suit divisive political goals. Through a mixture of language analyses and psychological experiments, this research programme investigated the narratives that populists use to influence public understandings of group identities, and whether these could be challenged. Initial research from my PhD focused on politicians and news media, as two of the most prominent sources of populist political narratives, across three liberal democracies (UK, US, and Australia). The results demonstrated how two key identities of 'the elite' and 'immigrants' could be used to further populist agendas. Notions of 'the elite' could be used to depict a range of voices in society as being untrustworthy sources of information. They could include mainstream news sources, universities, schools and even protesting members of the public. Populists could also depict immigration in ways which presented people from elsewhere as having inherently 'antagonistic' or 'alien' values that meant they would choose to 'reject' the national identity. This served to create hostile perceptions towards others within the nation which could be extended across generations. The research then investigated whether teaching people how their social identities could be used in political rhetoric could challenge negative social attitudes. It emerged that this was effective for challenging populist, but not anti-immigration, attitudes.The proposed fellowship will build on this research through five objectives: (1) Deliver impact activities to improve the critical evaluation of political claims, (2) Engage with public research institutions to challenge existing policy, (3) Develop skills in advanced experimental methods, (4) Produce academic papers, (5) Increase the academic reach of the findings through presentations and exploring the potential for future research collaboration. The fellowship will maximise the impact of my findings for non-academic audiences through educational events for secondary school students, podcasts, and writing a news article, to show people some of the common techniques used by populists. I will present my findings to academic audiences in the UK, Canada, at a major political psychology conference, and use the findings to challenge public research agencies to reflect on the terms they use to describe identities connected to immigration. Finally, I will conduct a follow-up study to the original intervention to populist narratives. This will allow for the design to be developed and allow for a more robust test of its effectiveness.The narratives identified in my research are important to understand because multiple voices speaking on any given issue is a vital part of robust debate and accountability in liberal democracies; populist narratives can discredit various voices in society as 'elites' and therefore weaken trust in democratic processes. Additionally, healthy intergroup relationships are important for the wellbeing of society and its economic and cultural success. Narratives which depict people from different nations having 'antagonistic' values create disharmony between groups and encourage prejudicial attitudes and/or violent behaviours against those deemed to be a dangerous 'them'. The fellowship will therefore take the research findings outside of academia to improve people's ability to critically read the arguments of those who would seek to influence them. It aims to contribute towards more healthy forms of democratic debate and more positive perceptions of the relationships between different groups in society.