Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships across Issue Domains and Political Contexts

ALAN S. GERBER; GREGORY A. HUBER; DAVID DOHERTY; CONOR M. DOWLING; SHANG E. HA

doi:10.1017/s0003055410000031

journal article Feb 01, 2010

Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships across Issue Domains and Political Contexts

ALAN S. GERBER GREGORY A. HUBER

DAVID DOHERTY CONOR M. DOWLING SHANG E. HA

American Political Science Review Vol. 104 No. 1 pp. 111-133 · Cambridge University Press (CUP)

View at Publisher Save 10.1017/s0003055410000031

Abstract

Previous research on personality traits and political attitudes has largely focused on the direct relationships between traits and ideological self-placement. There are theoretical reasons, however, to suspect that the relationships between personality traits and political attitudes (1) vary across issue domains and (2) depend on contextual factors that affect the meaning of political stimuli. In this study, we provide an explicit theoretical framework for formulating hypotheses about these differential effects. We then leverage the power of an unusually large national survey of registered voters to examine how the relationships between Big Five personality traits and political attitudes differ across issue domains and social contexts (as defined by racial groups). We confirm some important previous findings regarding personality and political ideology, find clear evidence that Big Five traits affect economic and social attitudes differently, show that the effect of Big Five traits is often as large as that of education or income in predicting ideology, and demonstrate that the relationships between Big Five traits and ideology vary substantially between white and black respondents.

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References

Details

Published: Feb 01, 2010
Vol/Issue: 104(1)
Pages: 111-133
License: View

Authors

Cite This Article

ALAN S. GERBER, GREGORY A. HUBER, DAVID DOHERTY, et al. (2010). Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships across Issue Domains and Political Contexts. American Political Science Review, 104(1), 111-133. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055410000031

Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships across Issue Domains and Political Contexts

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