Much research argues a low subjective social status to be a strong predictor of support for populist-authoritarian parties. Perceptions of a low social status are subjective and consequently based on voters' beliefs about what other members of society think though. We argue that voters misperceive feelings of being left behind to be widespread, providing justification for supporting populist-authoritarian actors. When being informed about the real distribution of subjective social status, voters not only update their perceptions but also become less likely to vote for populist parties. We use an innovative and pre-registered pre-post survey experiment conducted in the context of the 2024 elections in Eastern Germany to test this theory. We find that correcting citizens' misperception about the prevalence of a low subjective status strongly and lastingly changes their attitudes. The treatment also appears to affect voting intentions and actual voting behavior. Additional analyses suggest that this is because voters update their perceptions of the status of their social group rather than their perceptions of government performance or political trust. This has immediate implications for scholarly work concerned with populist voting and political initiatives aimed at countering populist parties.