America First populism, social volatility, and self-reported arrests

Despite research on the causes of populism and on the narratives of populist leaders, there is little empirical work on the relationship between populist attitudes and behavior, notably including criminal behavior. Our overarching concern is the recurrent social volatility of metaphorical populist t...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 117; no. 43; pp. 26703 - 26709
Main Authors Levi, Ron, Sendroiu, Ioana, Hagan, John
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 27.10.2020
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Attitude
Attitudes
Boundaries
Crime
Crime - statistics & numerical data
Elections
Empirical analysis
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Politics
Populism
Poverty
Self Report
Social Change
Social interactions
Social Sciences
United States
Volatility
Xenophobia
Young Adult
United States
antiforeigner attitudes
populism
symbolic boundaries
social volatility
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Summary:Despite research on the causes of populism and on the narratives of populist leaders, there is little empirical work on the relationship between populist attitudes and behavior, notably including criminal behavior. Our overarching concern is the recurrent social volatility of metaphorical populist themes that are central to impactful political messaging. Drawing on a national United States survey conducted around the 2016 election, we use multilevel models to show that the politically charged exclusionary boundaries of “America First” populism are behaviorally connected to increased odds of having been arrested.We argue that the rapid redrawing of social boundaries that make up populist attitudes is closely connected with the effects of economic and political frustrations during times of rapid social change. In the process, we develop a behavioral analysis of the social volatility of the recurrent populist movement in America.
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Reviewers: K.H., University of Iowa; and G.L., University of Maryland.
Contributed by John Hagan, August 11, 2020 (sent for review April 6, 2020; reviewed by Karen Heimer and Gary LaFree)
1R.L. and I.S. contributed equally to this work.
Author contributions: R.L., I.S., and J.H. designed research; I.S. analyzed data; and R.L., I.S., and J.H. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2006223117