The rise of populism has received extensive academic and media attention. Research into the uses of “populism” in news media indicates that it predominantly has a disparaging connotation and is rampantly misused.

Furthermore, the media’s narrative around populism often makes use of cataclysmic language through metaphors that insinuate natural disasters.

Does the media’s careless and all-too-frequent use of the word affect how news audiences interpret it?

A 2020 analysis of 1,037 newspaper articles found that the terms “populism” or “populist” were often used in attention-grabbing headlines, and not further mentioned nor articulated in the body of the article.

This contributes to the kind of ambiguity that removes the opportunity for a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the concept among readers.

Our recent research on this issue started from the premise that debates about populism within academia and the media may not accurately reflect public perceptions of the concept.

We wanted to know how citizens perceive populism and what they associate it with. Do they think of it in positive or negative terms, or are they neutral, undecided or uninformed about it?

To address our research question, we drew on an original public opinion survey in four countries where populist movements, people and parties have moved into the mainstream: Canada, the United States, France and Italy. A random sample of 4,000 people — a thousand per country — were invited to complete the survey.

Our findings revealed that a significant proportion of respondents (67 per cent) are uninformed about the meaning of populism. Conversely, a vast majority of misinformed people (22 per cent) mistakenly equate populism with concepts such as........

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