Varieties of populist attitudes in Brexit Britain: socio-political and psychological correlates of a new multi-dimensional scale

Populism is usually understood as a complex multi-dimensional phenomenon that encompasses different manifestations. However, most studies on the demand-side adopt a parsimonious minimal definition approach that hinders the ability to capture different forms of populism and the variable weight of its components. This article tests a new multi-dimensional strategy to measure and compare populist and pluralist attitudes in the context of Brexit Britain. We explore the relationship between populism and Britons’ socio-political views – on borders, democracy, governance, identity, and the European Union – and psychological traits – such as conspiracy belief, social alienation, justification of political violence, and meaning in life—. Our new Multi-dimensional Populist Attitudes Scale (MPAS) reveals two varieties of populism, ‘aspirational/subversive’ and ‘identitarian/protective’, and a non-populist ‘moderate/pluralist’ archetype. The new items introduced in the MPAS can complement (or become an alternative to) extant scales especially in contexts where populist movements do not fully fit narrow conceptualisations of populism.