Individuals Meaningfully Differ in How They Construct the Populist Subject of ‘the People’: Development and Initial Validation of the Popular Inclusion and Exclusion Scale

Despite the variety of populist manifestations, little research has dedicated itself to exploring this variation within and between individuals. Building on a discursive tradition, we propose that individuals meaningfully differ in how they construct the populist group of ‘the people’. Across three studies, we developed a popular inclusion and exclusion scale, which measured how people expand and restrict access to the populist ingroup. Exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 ( n = 200) and Study 2 ( n = 200) demonstrated that a two‐factor model of inclusion and exclusion was the optimal structure for our data. Additional construct validation provided further evidence for this structure and its discriminant and convergent validity. Lastly, Study 3 ( n = 400) confirmed this factor structure and provided evidence for measurement invariance and the criterion validity of our scale. Across all three studies, individual differences in popular construction uniquely contributed to group entitativity perceptions and populist‐relevant outcomes.