According to the report, there are clear signs that the so-called “populist wave” — which saw radical and anti-establishment leaders, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, rise to power — could be diminishing.

The mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis by populist leaders, a desire for stability and a decline in polarizing attitudes were swaying public opinion away from populist sentiment, researchers said. Populist leaders were also considered to be less trustworthy as sources of Covid-related information than their centrist counterparts, the poll found.

The pandemic prompted a shift toward technocratic politics, the paper said, which bolstered trust in governments and experts such as scientists.

“The story of politics in recent years has been the emergence of anti-establishment politicians who thrive on the growing distrust of experts,” Roberto Foa, the report’s lead author, said in a press release Tuesday. “From [Turkey’s] Erdogan and [Brazil’s] Bolsonaro to the ‘strong men’ of Eastern Europe, the planet has experienced a wave of political populism. Covid-19 may have caused that wave to crest.”