Language Simplicity as a Tool of 'Successful' Populist Rhetoric?

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• Department of Political and Social Sciences

Elements of populist rhetorical strategies are among others blame attribution and people-centrism. So far, research did not pay much attention to the effect of simple language as a tool of populist rhetoric. Thus, this paper aims to show how simple language in combination with other populist rhetorical strategies has different effects across various voter groups. Simple language is hypothesized to have a higher effect on people with underlying populist attitudes than without and a lower effect among left-wing than right-wing populist party supporters. To shed light on the effect of rhetorical strategies, I conducted a candidate choice experiment (N=3363) in Germany between December 2020 and January 2021. The paired vignette design asks respondents to choose between statements of two candidates and select the candidate they would rather vote for. The statements apply varying attribute levels of language complexity, blame attribution and people-centrism to model left-wing, right-wing as well as centered populist and non-populist messages. The experiment allows for causal conclusions and shows that simple language cannot be considered a successful populist rhetorical strategy. Surprisingly, simple language has a rather negative effect on vote choice in general, but also across people with underlying populist attitudes. However, the experimental results provide slight evidence that right-wing populist party voters respond more to simple language than left-wing party voters.