Abstract

This study focuses on the analysis of social psychological antecedents of populism. We tested the effect of motivational factors such as basic needs, significance needs, and epistemic needs in explaining populist attitudes in an Italian sample (N = 140). In our analysis, we included other factors that have been traditionally associated with populism, such as collective narcissism, cultural threat, economic status, and political orientation. Moreover, we conducted an analysis of the narrative associated to the concept of populism to explore its representation in the Italian context. The results show that the the frustration of the need for significance better explains populist attitudes. Additionally, the analysis of the word-associations show the relevance of negative emotions. In line with the literature on need for significance, negative emotions appeared a dispositional component of the individuals with high need for significance. The results obtained provide a preliminary understanding of the determinants of populism as well as the representation of populism in the Italian context