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The personalities of politicians: A big five survey of American legislators

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Abstract

This study uses the Big Five framework to investigate personality differences between politicians and the general public and between politicians themselves based on ideology and party identification. A 50-item Big Five questionnaire was taken by 2586 respondents at the Open Psychology data website and 278 American state legislators. The author finds that politicians are more Extraverted, Agreeable, Emotionally Stable, and Conscientious than the general public. At the same time, they are slightly lower on Intellect/Imagination. All results are statistically significant for all traits and both sexes, except with regards to females and Intellect. When comparing politicians to one another and controlling for demographic variables, Republicans score higher on Conscientiousness and lower on Intellect and Agreeableness. These findings hold for a smaller sample when ideology is the dependent variable, although only Intellect/Imagination reaches statistical significance. Conservative ideology is also associated with Emotional Stability. The results show important differences between politicians and the public, and reveal personality differences among elites that are in some ways analogous to the results we find in more representative samples.

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... At a normative level, most theories of political representation assume that politicians resemble constituents in ways that allow politicians to respond to constituents' needs and allow constituents to meaningfully assess their representatives' performance (Mansbridge 2003;Pitkin 1967). Together with decades of research on policy representation (Miller and Stokes 1963;Soroka and Wlezien 2009), political scientists have also explored other ways in which politicians might be expected to resemble their constituents, including personality traits (Dynes, Hassell, and Miles 2022;Hanania 2017), reasoning and problemsolving (Sheffer et al. 2018), and values and norms such as altruism and cooperation (Enemark et al. 2016;LeVeck et al. 2014). Identifying the respects in which politicians do or do not resemble their constituentsand then assessing the normative significance of this alignment or misalignment-is a central feature of contemporary theories of political representation (Mansbridge 1999;Urbinati and Warren 2008). ...
... Alignment or misalignment between elites and citizens is also theoretically important because we have good reason to suspect that elites do differ from ordinary citizens in their theories of elections and voting behavior. Political elites differ from other citizens not only in their demographic characteristics, such as age, wealth, and education (Carnes and Lupu 2023), but also in their personality traits (Hanania 2017), partisanship and political engagement (Enders 2021), and in the way they approach relevant decision-making processes, such as bargaining (Sheffer, Loewen, and Lucas 2023). Relatedly, politicians have distinctive opportunities to interact not only with voters but also with other politicians, including more experienced elites and campaign strategists who may socialize them into particular theories of "how things really work" in politics (Esaiasson and Holmberg 2017;Fenno 1977). 2 These compositional, social, and cultural factors give us good reason to expect politicians' beliefs about elections and voting to differ from those of ordinary citizens. ...
... Healy and Malhotra (2009) do find that voters, in the context of policies dealing with natural disasters, support immediate relief aid rather than future disaster prevention, which suggests that voters tend to be averse to short-run costs that are connected to long term responsible policymaking. Jacobs and Matthews (2012;2017), in contrast, show that voters are myopic in favoring secure short-term policy benefits, but emphasize that this does not imply that voters are fundamentally short-sighted. Voters are not impatient, they argue, but focus more on the short term simply because they are uncertain about the future. ...
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While political scientists regularly engage in spirited theoretical debates about elections and voting behavior, few have noticed that elected politicians also have theories of elections and voting. Here, we investigate politicians’ positions on eight central theoretical debates in the area of elections and voting behavior and compare politicians’ theories to those held by ordinary citizens. Using data from face-to-face interviews with nearly one thousand politicians in 11 countries, together with corresponding surveys of more than twelve thousand citizens, we show that politicians overwhelmingly hold thin, minimalist, “democratic realist” theories of voting, while citizens’ theories are more optimistic and policy oriented. Politicians’ theoretical tendencies—along with their theoretical misalignment from citizens—are remarkably consistent across countries. These theories are likely to have important consequences for how politicians campaign, communicate with the public, think about public policy, and represent their constituents.
... Thus far, politicians' personality traits have typically been studied via actual politicians' self-assessments (e.g., Best, 2011;Caprara, Barbaranelli, Consiglio, Picconi, & Zimbardo, 2003;Dietrich, Lasley, Mondak, Remmel, & Turner, 2012;Hanania, 2017;Joly, Soroka, & Loewen, 2019;Nørgaard & Klemmensen, 2019;Schumacher & Zettler, 2019), expert ratings (e.g., Constantini & Craik, 1980;Lilienfeld et al., 2012;Nai, 2019;Rubenzer, Faschingbauer, & Ones, 2000;Visser, Book, & Volk, 2017), voters' ratings (e.g., De Vries & Van Prooijen, 2019Wright & Tomlinson, 2018), or speech and statement analyses (e.g., Winter, Hermann, Weintraub, & Walker, 1991). This research, which was conducted in different countries, unequivocally finds that politicians in office score on average higher than the normal population on the traits of extraversion and emotional stability (Best, 2011;Caprara & Vecchione, 2017, p. 220;Hanania, 2017;Nørgaard & Klemmensen, 2019;Weinberg, 2011, p. 139), but also on honestyhumility (Schumacher & Zettler, 2019). ...
... Thus far, politicians' personality traits have typically been studied via actual politicians' self-assessments (e.g., Best, 2011;Caprara, Barbaranelli, Consiglio, Picconi, & Zimbardo, 2003;Dietrich, Lasley, Mondak, Remmel, & Turner, 2012;Hanania, 2017;Joly, Soroka, & Loewen, 2019;Nørgaard & Klemmensen, 2019;Schumacher & Zettler, 2019), expert ratings (e.g., Constantini & Craik, 1980;Lilienfeld et al., 2012;Nai, 2019;Rubenzer, Faschingbauer, & Ones, 2000;Visser, Book, & Volk, 2017), voters' ratings (e.g., De Vries & Van Prooijen, 2019Wright & Tomlinson, 2018), or speech and statement analyses (e.g., Winter, Hermann, Weintraub, & Walker, 1991). This research, which was conducted in different countries, unequivocally finds that politicians in office score on average higher than the normal population on the traits of extraversion and emotional stability (Best, 2011;Caprara & Vecchione, 2017, p. 220;Hanania, 2017;Nørgaard & Klemmensen, 2019;Weinberg, 2011, p. 139), but also on honestyhumility (Schumacher & Zettler, 2019). However, the latter finding may carry socially desirable content and disagrees with voters' perceptions that often suggest greater narcissism in politicians, i.e., being low on honesty-humility (e.g., De Vries & Van Prooijen, 2019). ...
... On the other traits, there is less agreement. Most report higher levels of openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness (see Caprara & Vecchione, 2017, p. 220;Nørgaard & Klemmensen, 2019;Schumacher & Zettler, 2019), while some report lower levels of openness (Hanania, 2017;Rubenzer et al., 2000), lower levels of agreeableness (Best, 2011;Rubenzer et al., 2000), or lower levels of conscientiousness (Best, 2011). ...
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What makes voters prefer a certain type of politician? First, we argue that voters’ trait preferences follow a “desired leadership” principle. We show that citizens want the ideal-type politician to be more emotionally stable, extravert-assertive, more deliberate-conscientious and open, more honest, but also somewhat more disagreeable than the average citizen. Second, we argue that voters prefer a model candidate with similar basic value-related personality traits. Importantly, we show that trait congruence is partly mediated by core ideological preferences and thus ensures democratic representation. The study’s findings have implications for personalization of politics and democratic representation, because personality traits can be vital cues for voters deciding whether candidates will act in their interest and represent them well.
... There are only a few studies of the personality traits of political elites based on validated, direct measures (Italy: Caprara, Barbaranelli, Consiglio, Picconi & Zimbardo, 2003;Caprara, Francescato, Mebane, Sorace & Vecchione, 2010;Germany: Best, 2011;United States: Constantini and Craik, 1980;Dietrich, Lasley, Mondak, Remmel & Turner, 2012;Hanania, 2017; see also McConaughy, 1950;Hennessy, 1959). So far no study of legislators has been undertaken in a Scandinavian country and to our knowledge no one has examined personality differences both on the Big Five and the aspect level. ...
... In term of the Big Five constructs elites were more conscientious, A recent study of 278 state legislators (response rate=4%) used a 50-item Big Five inventory from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP). It showed that political elites were significantly more extraverted and emotionally stable than respondents in a convenience sample of 2,586 Americans (Hanania, 2017). Elites were also more conscientious and agreeable than the average American in the benchmark sample, but the differences were substantially smaller. ...
... Openness to Experience. The recent study by Hanania (2017) reported that high Openness and Agreeableness was more widespread among Democrats whereas high Conscientiousness was more frequently found among Republicans. When correlated with ideological selfplacement only Openness remained significant. ...
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Objective: To study personality traits of Danish parliamentarians (MPs) and examine elite voter congruence and elite differentiation. Whereas previous political elite studies have focused only on the Big Five level we include aspect-level differences. Method: In a highly representative survey of Danish MPs (N=81, response rate= 46.3 pct.) and a representative study of Danish voters (N=3,612) we used the 60-item NEO-PI-R short version to examine personality differences on the Big Five level and, based on the NEO-BFAS, the aspect level. Results: MPs were more Extraverted, Conscientious and Open than the average voter. On the elite level, liberal MPs were more Agreeable and, on the aspect level, more Compassionate but not more Polite than conservative MPs. MPs in center parties had stronger power aspirations and were less Agreeable and more Extraverted than MPs in peripheral parties. On the aspect level, MPs in center parties were more Assertive and Enthusiastic and less Polite. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were associated with power aspiration, but Extraversion was not because the Assertiveness effect was suppressed by a non-effect for Enthusiasm. Conclusions: The inclusion of the aspect level explains non-findings at the Big Five level and adds important nuances to the personality portrait of political elites.
... Although all are parliamentary systems, these countries still score relatively highly in several personalization indexes, namely in the role of the prime minister (Rajat & Kenig, 2018). political spectrum (Caprara & Zimbardo, 2004;Hanania, 2017;Joly et al., 2018), while openness is associated with the left (Joly, Hofmans & Loewen, 2018). 3 However, the correspondence between ideology or partisanship and personality does not seem to be as clear for politicians as it is for citizens. ...
... Ideology seems to have some explanatory power for understanding individual differences regarding artistic, and -above all-reserved and finding fault. Only the first trait is associated with openness, and the rest belong to the agreeableness domain; a result that goes against most of the established literature (Vecchione et al., 2011, Sibley et al. 2012Caprara & Zimbardo, 2004;Hanania, 2017). Partisanship has a less important effect in shrinking personality differences, but it has a certain effect on sociable, relaxed or finding fault; and apparently explains more between-individual differences for politicians than for citizens, opening the door to a certain degree of elite differentiation. ...
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Despite the alleged increasing importance given to politicians’ personalities, the similarities and differences between citizens and politicians regarding their personality traits have been insufficiently studied. This research analyses the personality similarities and differences between citizens and politicians in Spain across party allegiances and ideologies. For this, we use two representative surveys for citizens and MPs. Our results show that Spanish politicians are a more homogeneous population—regarding their personality traits—than Spanish citizens, and that Spanish MPs are more sociable and imaginative and less lazy and artistic than the average citizen, which is consistent with a ‘politician’s personality’.
... The reason is, there is scholarly evidence which suggests an individual's personality affects political behavior and choice making. Studies show political orientation correlates the Big Five (Sweetser, 2014;Hanania, 2017;Rosema & Bakker, 2017 The current study conceptualizes interrelationship between personality and leadership behavior. A meta-analysis by Judge, Bono, Ilies and Gerhardt (2002) revealed a correlation between four of the five traits and leadership, and the study concluded agreeableness is the least relevant trait for the leader. ...
... The study revealed three of the five traits were associated with the likelihood of constitution alteration attempts by political leaders. Hanania (2017) in a study among American legislators found, politicians are more extraverted, agreeable, neurocistic, and conscientious than the general public, which implies significant differences in trait characteristics between politicians and the public. Hanania (2017) also compared Republican and Democrat voters in the United States and found that Republican voters score higher on conscientiousness and neuroticism, while Democrats score high on agreeableness and open to experience. ...
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Research indicates leadership is an important discipline in political studies. However, leadership has received little attention within political science scholarship. Theorists attribute this neglect to perplexities of political leadership which is often in conflict with tenets of liberal democratic ethos. As a result, the concept of political leadership and the character of the political leader remain understudied. The current study utilizes conceptual framework analysis method to identify political leadership’s central concepts and themes which form the theoretical framework. The current study was conducted by examining literature covering social, cultural, and psychological facets of political leadership. Ensuing concepts were then used to map out a conceptual framework for political leadership. The findings reveal behavior is a cause of political leadership outcomes. Additionally, the study shows personality traits, leadership style, motivation, and stress tolerance are central concepts to the behavior of the leader, and define leadership outcomes within a political setting. Finally, further studies into the interconnectivities of the central concepts will deepen the understanding of the phenomena.
... email correspondence) that were carried out in the US had rates as low as 4% (e.g. Hanania, 2017). Nonetheless, the analyses offered in this paper are exploratory in nature. ...
... Unfortunately, the response rate in our study was lower than what we had expected, although rates were comparable to those in studies using similar recruitment strategies (e.g. Hanania, 2017). An older study carried out in the US used postal delivery of surveys and obtained a higher rate (25%) of responding by politicians solicited (Reutzel, Hollingsworth, & Cox, 1996), and higher rates of over 50% are seen when surveys are delivered by post in other countries, such as those in Scandinavia (e.g. ...
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A disbelief in alibis is one contributor to wrongful convictions. One reason that triers‐of‐fact may disbelieve alibis is that they lack evidence to corroborate the whereabouts of the suspect at the time of the crime. Contextual factors, such as when the alibi was disclosed and what was the nature of the crime, can also affect alibi believability. This paper outlines two studies where mock jurors evaluated an investigation and trial description online and rated alibi believability, defendant character trait ratings, and verdicts. Both studies examined the impact of corroborative alibi evidence and the timing of the alibi disclosure. In addition, Study 1 included the type of crime and Study 2 included the number of alibi corroborators as additional independent variables. We hypothesized that alibis would be viewed more positively when they were disclosed earlier rather than later, were corroborated by strong physical evidence and multiple corroborators, and involved less violent offenses. As hypothesized, in both studies, alibis with strong physical evidence were thought to be more believable than those with no physical evidence but the number of corroborators and type of crime did not affect any dependent measures. Delayed timing had some negative effects on views of the defendant's character. Corroborative physical evidence affected alibi believability consistently, and contextual factors mattered less. Both implications and suggestions for future research are further discussed.
... email correspondence) that were carried out in the US had rates as low as 4% (e.g. Hanania, 2017). Nonetheless, the analyses offered in this paper are exploratory in nature. ...
... Unfortunately, the response rate in our study was lower than what we had expected, although rates were comparable to those in studies using similar recruitment strategies (e.g. Hanania, 2017). An older study carried out in the US used postal delivery of surveys and obtained a higher rate (25%) of responding by politicians solicited (Reutzel, Hollingsworth, & Cox, 1996), and higher rates of over 50% are seen when surveys are delivered by post in other countries, such as those in Scandinavia (e.g. ...
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Sex offender registries (SORs) were established due to policies and practices intended to protect the public from individuals who commit sexually violent acts, and yet the empirical literature does not show that public SORs reduce or prevent sexual crimes. Given that politicians prominently influence SOR policies, the current study explores the views of SORs by 26 political decision-makers from Canada and the US. Participants completed a survey on their opinions regarding SORs and their knowledge of SOR eligibility. Attitudes and political perspectives were assessed to examine their association with SOR opinions. Almost two thirds of those surveyed believed SORs should be publicly available, and one third believed SORs helped to protect the public. These beliefs were associated with those with conservative-leaning political views. These findings help us to explore the perspectives of political decision-makers and gain insight into attitudinal factors that may play a role in influencing opinions regarding SORs.
... That said, a handful of studies have, in recent years, managed to extract self-report data on the personality traits of politicians in the US, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and Canada (e.g. Best, 2011;Caprara et al., 2010;Hanania 2017;Norgaard and Klemmensen 2018;Scott and Medeiros 2019). ...
... Comparable studies in the United States have shown that state legislators score higher for Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Extraversion than the American population (Hanania 2017), while Nørgaard and Klemmensen (2018) find that Danish MPs score higher for Extraversion, Emotional Stability (the inverse of Neuroticism), Conscientiousness and Agreeableness than their compatriots. However, the effects of Emotional Stability, Openness and Conscientiousness dropped out when Nørgaard and Klemmensen matched their elite and mass samples on gender and education. ...
Article
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Public faith in politicians and associated systems of governance is desperately low. At the same time, pub- lic opinion of politicians is characterized by a vernacular of psychological accusations pertaining to greed, self-interest and careerism. This article tests the verity of these claims by comparing quantitative data on the Basic Human Values (Schwartz 1992) of 106 UK Members of Parliament (MPs) and 134 unsuccessful parliamentary candidates with data collected from the British public in the seventh wave of the European Social Survey. It explores (a) how politicians differ psychologically from those they govern and (b) how personality characteristics such as basic values inform candidate emergence. The study finds that politics is a profession few ‘ordinary’ people care to enter. MPs attribute significantly more importance to Self- Transcendence values than the comparatively conservative population they govern, but the relative importance they ascribe to Power values seems to have an equally strong predictive effect on candidate emergence.
... Of the 3151 mayors contacted, 971 responded for a 30.8% response rate. The rate is larger than those of many recent studies of officeholders (Hanania, 2017;Herrick, et al., 2022;Herrick & Thomas, 2022a;Nownes & Freeman, 2019;Purtle et al., 2019;Thomas et al., 2019). Nevertheless, we checked for the representativeness of the respondents on several traits of the full population. ...
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Using an original dataset, we offer an intersectional exploration of psychological violence, threats, and physical violence against U.S. mayors in 2021 in cities of 10,000+ in population. We also explore violence that is gendered and raced. Overall, we find significant and meaningful differences among gender/race groups. Women of color and non-Hispanic white women faced higher rates of threats, gendered, and sexualized violence than men, and women of color were the only mayors to report heightened levels of gendered and raced violence. Non-Hispanic white women mayors were distinctive in that they reported higher levels of psychological violence, including being criticized for their appearance and perceptions that they were too emotional, but were least likely to be called sexist. These findings suggest that there are race- and gender-based costs of holding office. If so, the effects on democratic representation and the benefits from representational diversity will be forfeited.
... A total of 252 senators out of 1940 5 responded to the survey, which resulted in a 13 percent response rate. The rate is comparable to or even larger than those of many recent studies of state legislators (Hanania, 2017;Nownes and Freeman, 2019;Purtle et al., 2019). Nevertheless, we checked for the representativeness of the respondents on several traits of the full senatorial population including political party, gender, tenure in office, level of professionalism of the legislature, and crime rates in the states. ...
... Only by comparing successful candidates (i.e., members of parliament) with unsuccessful candidates we gain insights into the factors that promote electoral success and the contribution of personality (see, e.g., Joly et al., 2019;Scott & Medeiros, 2020). Second, most research has focused on politicians' basic personality traits, usually measured via the big five framework (e.g., McCrae & John, 1992) and, to a lesser extent, the HEXACO model of personality (e.g., Ashton & Lee, 2007;Best, 2011;Hanania, 2017;Maier & Nai, 2021;Nai, 2019a;Ramey et al., 2019;Rice et al., 2021;Schumacher & Zettler, 2019;Visser et al., 2017). However, research suggests that individuals also differ in socially aversive-yet non-pathologicalpersonality traits that are responsible for behavior violating generally accepted ethical, moral, and social norms. ...
Article
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A growing body of studies is focusing on politicians’ personalities, as the personality of political elites has been shown to affect their behavior. Whereas most research uses the big five framework or HEXACO, only a few studies have been able to capture more “aversive,” “dark”—yet non-pathological—personality traits of politicians. However, these studies refer to top politicians; information on the distribution and the correlates of dark personality traits in the broad mass of politicians is still lacking. Moreover, information on dark personality traits in politicians is usually based on expert ratings; data using self-placement is missing. Based on data from six surveys with candidates running for German state elections in 2021 and 2022 (N[pooled data set] = 1,632), we, to the best of our knowledge, offer, for the first time, insights into politicians’ self-reported socially aversive personality traits. “Dark” personality traits are measured by the political elites aversive personality scale (PEAPS). Results show that German politicians exhibit moderate levels of aversive personality traits. In addition, the extent of candidates’ dark personalities is strongly negatively correlated with honesty–humility, agreeableness vs. anger, and extraversion, while associations with other basic personality traits are much weaker or insignificant. We also find that younger, more right-leaning, and more ideologically extreme candidates report higher levels of aversive personality.
... Elected politicians (especially national MPs) are notoriously difficult to access for survey research and this challenge sits behind the general paucity of robust evidence on the psychological characteristics and preferences of elected representatives (see Druckman & Lupia, 2000). However, the response rates achieved here are comparable to similar studies in Italy (10%, Caprara et al., 2010) and the United States (4%, Hanania, 2017). More importantly, these samples are diverse across a range of characteristics (Table 2). ...
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Tackling an important gap in the literature on political trust, this article focuses on politicians and the relevance of their other-to-self trust judgements for decision-making in public office. A unique quantitative dataset gathered from national politicians in the UK, Canada and South Africa is used to (1) examine descriptive levels of felt trust and distrust among politicians and (2) evaluate the impact of these feelings on politicians’ risky decision-making. To achieve outcome (2), this article presents the results of three survey experiments in which politicians were asked to make decisions in scenarios where both the presentation and the nature of risk varied. The results indicate that MPs’ perceptions of public trust and distrust do matter for risky decision-making, and that these variables moderate a reflection effect whereby MPs are otherwise more risk-averse in the face of gains and risk-taking in the face of losses.
... (2) an email reminder with a link; (3) a mailed survey; (4) a post card reminder; and (5) a final email with a link. The response rate was 28% (617/2208) which is higher than most recent surveys of elites in the U.S. (Hanania, 2017;Nownes & Freeman, 2019;Purtle et al., 2019;Thomas et al., 2019). 4 To detect biases in responses, we checked differences in response rates by gender, party, incumbency, professionalism of the legislature, political culture, whether the state was a battleground state, and average district population size. ...
Article
There is a growing body of literature suggesting that women politicians face greater hostility and violence than men and that this depresses the willingness of women to serve and ultimately descriptive representation. Here we add to this burgeoning literature by examining gender differences in the psychological and physical violence experienced by state house candidates in the 2020 election cycle. Using a survey administered in 18 states, we find that women candidates were significantly more likely than men to report physical violence but not psychological violence. Further, women reported significantly more gendered violence, including sexualized violence. For women, but not for men, running in states more likely to support traditional gender norms was associated with more reported violence. Finally, on one measure of power (running for seats in full-time legislatures), women were more likely than men to report violence.
... Particularly, personality traits of leaders have been highlighted as being associated with specific policy directions undertaken by their governments (Greenstein, 1998;Owen and Davidson, 2009). Specifically, the partisan and ideological preferences of political elites have been shown to align along the Big Five Inventory (BFI) (Hanania, 2017;Joly et al., 2018). ...
Article
The current study assesses the extent to which government leaders’ personality traits are related to divergent policy responses during the pandemic. To do so, we use data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker initiative (OxCGRT) to measure the speed and magnitude of policy responses across countries and NEGex, a dataset that maps the personality traits of current heads of government (presidents or prime ministers) in 61 countries. We find that world leaders scoring high on “plasticity” (extraversion, openness) were quicker to implement travel restrictions and provide financial relief as well as offered a stronger response in general (average overall response). Whereas, leaders scoring high on “stability” (conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability) offered both quicker and stronger financial relief. Our findings underscore the need to account for the personality of decision-makers when exploring decision-making during the pandemic, and during similar crisis situations.
... Candidates received up to five contacts: (1) an email with a Qualtrics link; (2) an email reminder with a link; (3) a mailed survey; (4) a postcard reminder; and (5) a final email with a link. the response rate was 28% (617/2,208), which is higher than most recent surveys of elites in the united states (Hanania 2017;Purtle et al. 2019;thomas et al. 2019). to detect biases in responses, we checked differences in response rates by gender, party, incumbency, professionalism of the legislature, political culture, whether the state was a battleground state, 7. and average district population size. ...
Article
Although there is an established comparative literature addressing electoral violence, and an emerging literature on violence against US officeholders, research has not examined levels of violence perpetrated by constituents against US candidates, nor how a crisis, such as the COVID‐19 pandemic, including the political polarization connected to it, may affect violence. This note presents findings from a survey of state house candidates from 18 US states in the 2020 electoral cycle. The findings focus on psychological violence and suggest that it is a common occurrence, and that the COVID‐19 pandemic and polarization may have affected it. Specifically, most candidates reported that: they believe that the pandemic led to violence; those in states with larger increases in COVID‐19 cases and those running in states with higher levels of COVID‐19 public political events reported more violence. In addition, candidates running in more polarized states experienced more violence.
... The findings support several of our expectations and are in line with meta-analyses in personality and social psychology that point to agreeableness as a core disposition shaping how individuals relate to others (Crawford and Brandt, 2019). Research has shown that politicians tend to score high on this trait (Dietrich et al., 2012;Caprara et al., 2003;Hanania, 2017). Individuals who seek political office may, in general, be somewhat more predisposed to recognizing the needs of others. ...
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This research examines the influence of political candidates’ personality dispositions and constituency characteristics on their assessments of the needs of immigrants and religious minorities. Previous research, drawing on data from citizens, links personality differences to attitudes toward diversity and support for minority communities. Extending this research to candidates during an ongoing election campaign, this study examines the interaction between constituency diversity and politicians’ intrinsic motivations to recognize the interests of immigrants and religious minorities. Using data from a unique candidate survey during the 2018 municipal elections in two large Canadian provinces (N = 1,073), results show that personality traits provide an intrinsic motivation, independent of candidates’ descriptive characteristics or the level of diversity in their constituency, to recognize a higher level of support needed by members of these diverse communities. More agreeable candidates are consistently more likely to acknowledge that more should be done for immigrants and religious minorities whereas the negative influence of conscientiousness on minority recognition is suppressed in highly diverse constituencies. The results extend previous research on personality and intergroup dynamics and situate candidates’ recognition of the needs of others as an important antecedent to political representation.
... A total of 252 senators out of 1,940 responded to the survey, 6 which resulted in a 13% response rate. The rate is comparable to or even larger than those of many recent studies of state legislators (Hanania 2017;Nownes and Freeman 2019;Purtle et al. 2019). Nevertheless, we checked for the representativeness of the respondents on several traits of the full senatorial population including political party, gender, tenure in office, level of professionalism of the legislature, and crime rates in the states. ...
Article
In this study, we report results of a survey of U.S. state senators about their experiences of psychological abuse, physical violence, and sexualized abuse and violence on the job, as well as gender differences among senators. Overall, our results indicate that more than 80% of state senators reported having faced abuse and violence, and women senators reported more physical violence than men. Moreover, we found differences in the factors that contributed to abuse and violence among women and men state senators. Most notably, women with higher levels of power (party or committee leaders) were more likely than other women to experience psychological abuse and sexualized abuse and violence, and Democratic women senators faced more sexualized abuse and violence than Republican women. The implications for continued service by state senators in the face of these experiences, the likelihood of attracting future candidates, and the implications for gender diversity in office are explored.
... Particularly, personality traits of leaders have been highlighted as being associated with speci c policy directions undertaken by their governments (Greenstein 1998;Owen and Davidson 2009). Speci cally, the partisan and ideological preferences of political elites have been shown to align along the Big Five Inventory (BFI) (Hanania 2017;Joly et al. 2018). ...
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The rapidly growing scholarship on the COVID-19 crisis has focused on a variety of macro-level factors to understand government policy responses. The current study addresses an important gap in this line of research by evaluating the extent to which government leaders’ personality traits have led to divergent policy responses during the pandemic. To do so, we use data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker initiative (OxCGRT) to measure differences in both the speed and magnitude of these responses across countries and NEGex, a dataset that maps the personality traits of current heads of government (presidents or prime ministers) in 61 countries. Our results show that personality matters. We find that world leaders scoring high on “plasticity” (extraversion, openness) provide a stronger overall response, as well as a more rapid response in terms of financial relief. Whereas, leaders scoring high on “stability” (conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability) offer both a quicker and stronger financial relief response. Our findings underscore the need to account for the personality of decision-makers when exploring policy decisions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during other crisis situations.
... Particularly, personality traits of leaders have been highlighted as being associated with speci c policy directions undertaken by their governments (Greenstein 1998;Owen and Davidson 2009). Speci cally, the partisan and ideological preferences of political elites have been shown to align along the Big Five Inventory (BFI) (Hanania 2017;Joly et al. 2018). ...
Preprint
Full-text available
The rapidly growing scholarship on the COVID-19 crisis has focused on a variety of macro-level factors to understand government policy responses. The current study addresses an important gap in this line of research by evaluating the extent to which government leaders’ personality traits have led to divergent policy responses during the pandemic. To do so, we use data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker initiative to measure differences in both the speed and magnitude of these responses across countries and NEGex, a dataset that maps the personality traits of current heads of government (presidents or prime ministers) in 61 countries. Our results show that personality matters. We find that world leaders scoring high on “plasticity” (extraversion, openness) provide a stronger overall response, as well as a more rapid response in terms of financial relief. Whereas, leaders scoring high on “stability” (conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability) offer both a quicker and stronger financial relief response. Our findings underscore the need to account for the personality of decision-makers when exploring policy decisions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during other crisis situations.
... A total of 252 senators out of 1940 3 responded to the survey, which resulted in a 13 percent response rate. The rate is comparable with or even larger than those of many recent studies of state legislators (Hanania 2017;Nownes and Freeman 2019;Purtle et al. 2019). Nevertheless, to determine the representativeness of respondents to our survey, we compared respondents with non-respondents on several traits of the full senatorial population: political party, sex, tenure in office, level of professionalism of the legislature, 4 and crime rates in the states. ...
Article
In this paper, we present analysis of an original dataset of levels of colleague aggression among U.S. state senators, whether women senators face more of these behaviors than men, and whether numerical and positional gender inequality in state senates affects these relationships. The results indicate that, overall, colleague aggression in U.S. state senates is relatively rare, and, in general, women do not face more aggression than men. Under certain conditions, however, subsets of women senators experience more aggressive behaviors than their counterparts, male or female. Specifically, when they serve in senates with higher percentages of women or growing numbers of women, they are disproportionally targeted. There is also some evidence that women committee chairs are more likely than rank-and-file women to face this type of behavior.
... To our knowledge, research that asks U.S. legislators to assess their own personality traits has focused exclusively on state party leaders and members of state legislatures. Most of this work dates back four or more decades (Costantini and Craik 1980;Hennessy 1959;McConaughy 1950;Stone and Baril 1979), and only two studies have centered on the Big Five (Dietrich et al. 2012;Hanania 2017). Outside of the United States, however, there recently have been additional Big Five applications. ...
Article
Long recognized for the diverse array of personalities it hosts, the U.S. Senate constitutes an institution in which individual psychological differences among its members carry significant potential consequences. Unfortunately, studying those individual differences is no easy task. This study introduces a new approach for doing so. Specifically, the study develops Big Five trait ratings for eighty-seven U.S. senators, with data drawn from assessments provided by a set of experts, U.S. Senate insiders. The paper explains the rationale for use of expert evaluations, offers evidence regarding the reliability and validity of the resulting measures, and explores possible relationships between personality and ten aspects of Senate behavior.
... Given the impact political elites have on society, it is understandable that researchers have paid increasing attention to the psychology of this group. Personality has represented a particular focus of this work, with a range of studies reporting noteworthy differences separating political elites from those they represent (Best, 2011;Caprara, Barbaranelli, Consiglio, Picconi, & Zimbardo, 2003;Caprara, Francescato, Mebane, Sorace, & Vecchione, 2010;Costantini & Craik, 1980;Dietrich, Lasley, Mondak, Remmel, & Turner, 2012;Hanania, 2017;Joly, Hofmans, & Loewen, 2018;Nørgaard, 2018;Nørgaard & Klemmensen, 2018;Schumacher & Zettler, 2019). However, this research has typically concerned only a limited subset of political elitesnamely, elected members of parliament. ...
Article
A substantial body of work has highlighted the distinctive personality trait levels of elected officials, but very little is known about the personality of those who actually implement the political will of these officials, namely, bureaucrats. We sent surveys to all Danish municipal politicians and high-level bureaucrats for whom contact information could be obtained (92% of total). With response rates of 53% and 40% for politicians and bureaucrats, respectively, our sample of political elites across the two groups represents the best-powered study of political elites to date. Responses to our 30-item Big Five survey (the BFI-2-S; Soto and John, 2017a; Vedel et al., 2020) highlighted substantial similarity among various categories of political elites. For example, differences between bureaucrats and elected officials were small on average, and less than half that observed in a recent study comparing Danish elected officials with a representative population sample (Nørgaard & Klemmensen, 2018). Comparisons between bureaucrats of different rank partially aligned with results on executive personality (Ones & Dilchert, 2009). Potential implications for effective political functioning and for meeting the needs of those with personalities diverging from those of political elites are briefly discussed.
... In a study of nearly 100 state legislators in the United States, politicians' typically rated themselves high in extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, while scoring low in emotional stability 1 (Dietrich et al., 2012). Similar findings reported by Hanania (2017), who compares a sample of 278 American legislators against an online sample of Americans, show that politicians are higher in extraversion and agreeableness, but also emotional stability and conscientiousness compared to other adults. ...
Article
This study investigates the relationship between personality and political careers. Drawing on a unique survey of municipal candidates from two Canadian provinces (N = 1193) and supplemented with survey data from citizens (N = 1665), we test for personality differences in candidate recruitment and electoral success. Results reveal significant personality differences between candidates and citizens, as well as between winning and losing candidates. Compared to other citizens, candidates are higher in extraversion, openness to experience, and emotional stability. As for the difference between electoral winners and losers, openness to experience is associated with a slightly higher likelihood of losing an election. These differences in personality traits emerge independent of other background characteristics such as age, education, and gender. Ultimately, the psychological dispositions that influence running for office and winning an election are not the same.
... Modern scholarship on the psychology of elites supports these concerns, demonstrating that many who choose to seek a role in government are different from the average citizen, often exhibiting "darker" personality traits (Watts et al. 2013;Post 2014;Silvester, Wyatt, and Randall 2014). Other scholars (often with less pessimistic results) seek to uncover broader correlates of office seeking and personality differences among elites using innovative samples of office holders in the United States, Canada, and Europe (Caprara et al. 2010;Best 2011;Hanania 2017;Nørgaard and Klemmensen 2019). While the office holder represents the outcome or end of political ambition expressed in action, a substantial research program moves from the elite level to the mass level by exploring nascent ambition or the precursors of ambition in ordinary citizens. ...
Article
This research considers the effects of the personality characteristics of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (labeled the Dark Triad) on political ambition. Research on nascent ambition has shown that individuals who express political ambition differ by social background, gender, and personality. Using original survey research, our analyses find that Dark Triad traits are significantly related to ambition. Respondents who score higher in Machiavellianism are more likely to have higher political ambition, more likely to enjoy the specific aspects of campaigning, and more likely to predict they will be successful candidates. While narcissism is related to feeling qualified and thinking about running for political office, individuals scoring higher in narcissism are less likely to express interest in the specific work of political campaigning. The results have implications for understanding the traits that drive political ambition and how the body politic gets the politicians it needs, though possibly not the politicians it wants.
... A small body of research investigates whether certain personality traits are disproportionately reflected among political elites rather than the general population. For example, recent studies from the US and Germany found that, compared to the general population, politicians tend to be more emotionally stable (low on neuroticism), more extrovert, more open to new experiences, less conscientious and less agreeable (Hanania 2017;Best 2011;see also McConaughy 1950). Italian politicians have been found to have higher levels of energy, agreeableness, openness, and emotional stability than Italian voters (Caprara and Vecchione 2017). ...
Article
In this article, we propose an individual-level explanation for variation in personalized representation, and ask which personality fits personalized representation. Building on political psychology literature, we derive hypotheses about how fundamental personality traits such as extraversion and agreeableness correlate with politicians’ preferences for personalized representation. We investigate these expectations using new survey data collected simultaneously among Danish and British MPs, including comprehensive personality measures. We show that personalized representation is particularly pronounced among MPs with higher levels of extraversion, openness to experience and lower levels of agreeableness. Furthermore, and in line with our theoretical expectations, we show that the correlations between personality traits and preferences for personalization vary across countries. Our findings suggest that personalized representation has an underlying personal dimension; consequently, politicians with certain personality traits may have an electoral advantage, particularly where politics become increasingly personalized.
... Personality research has become a prolific and abundant source of knowledge about human attitudes and behaviors, and workplace outcomes (Gebauer et al. 2014; Khalis and Mikami 2018;Kluemper et al. 2015;Seigfried-Spellar and Lankford 2018;Woo et al. 2016). It has been utilized as a theoretical lens by researchers in a variety of disciplines, including psychology (e.g., Barrick and Mount 1991;Hanania 2017;Hurtz and Donovan 2000;Judge et al. 2002;Mathieu 2013), business administration (e.g., Beus et al. 2015;Dalal et al. 2015;Kalshoven et al. 2011;Organ 1994;Parks-Leduc et al. 2015;Raja et al. 2004), education (e.g., Busato et al. 1998;Komarraju et al. 2009). Other disciplines such as criminology (e.g., Agnew et al. 2002;Miller and Lynam 2001), anthropology (e.g., Gurven et al. 2013) and even medicine (e.g., Abram and DeYoung 2017;Cunningham-Williams et al. 2005;Denollet et al. 1996) have also considered personality variables. ...
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In this paper, we examine the relationships between three of the Big 5 personality traits (conscientiousness, openness to experience, and agreeableness) and willingness to justify unethical behavior. We also consider the moderating relationship of four of the GLOBE cultural dimensions (institutional collectivism, humane orientation, performance orientation, and assertiveness) on the above relationship. We tested our propositions on a sample of 38,655 individuals from 23 different countries obtained from the latest data available from the World Values Survey Group’s survey (WVS 2014). We found that conscientiousness and agreeableness were both negatively associated with willingness to justify unethical behavior. We also conducted Hierarchical Linear Modeling and found significant interaction effects of selected GLOBE cultural dimensions (humane orientation, assertiveness, institutional collectivism, and performance orientation) on the relationships between personality traits and willingness to justify unethical behavior. We provide managerial implications of our findings, as well as suggestions for future research.
... Many empirical studies with individuals as the units of analysis have related the Big Five personality variables (e.g., Costa & McCrae, 1995;Goldberg, 1990;John & Srivastava, 1999) to political orientation in the USA (e.g., Alford & Hibbing, 2007;Barbaranelli, Caprara, Vecchione, & Fraley, 2007;Cooper, Golden, & Socha, 2013;Gerber et al., 2010;Hanania, 2017;Hirsh, DeYoung, Xu, & Peterson, 2010;Jonason, 2014;Mondak, 2010;Stenner, 2005). Most included conservative-liberal ideology as a criterion (e.g., Alford & Hibbing, 2007;Hirsh et al., 2010) and several also included Republican-Democrat preference (e.g., Barbaranelli et al., 2007;Cooper et al., 2013). ...
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The two present nomothetic studies focused on the period from 1996 to 2012 to determine relations between handedness and political orientation using the 48 contiguous American states as analytical units. The estimated percentage of left-handers in each state operationally defined handedness. A composite measure of Conservative-Republican preference was created from CBS/New York Times/Gallup polls of state resident conservatism and the percent in each state voting Republican in each presidential election from 1996 to 2012. Study 1 showed that state levels of left-handedness correlated to an extremely high degree with Conservative-Republican preference (r = −.80). As well, with common demographic differences between states reflected in socioeconomic status, White population percent, and urban population percent controlled through multiple regression, handedness still accounted for an additional 37.2% of the variance in Conservative-Republican preference. Study 2 found that each of the Big Five personality variables correlated significantly with handedness and with Conservative-Republican preference, but in the opposite direction. Furthermore, Study 2 demonstrated quite surprisingly that all Big Five personality relations to Conservative-Republican preference were eliminated when handedness was controlled in multiple regression equations. For all regression equations, the global Moran’s I test specifically developed for detecting residual spatial autocorrelation indicated no significant spatial autocorrelation.
... The latter also hold for agreeable/altruistic participants who are risk averse especially when facing losses (Kowert & Hermann, 1997, p. 623). The evidence on the way in which politicians differ from the general public in their (average) score on the Big Five dimensions is somewhat mixed (Best, 2011;Hanania, 2017), making it difficult to draw conclusions regarding Kowert and Hermann's (1997) findings for foreign decision-making. ...
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How much mileage can we get out of prospect theory to explain foreign policy decision-making? To answer this question, we first argue that risk as outcome uncertainty is the appropriate definition in prospect-theoretical applications. Then, we indicate that probability weighting—a crucial component of prospect theory—is typically ignored in such applications. We argue why this is problematic and suggest how to move forward. Next, we discuss how to establish the reference point in the face of outcomes in multiple dimensions, as is typically the case in foreign policy decision-making. Finally, we discuss what we have learnt regarding prospect theory’s scope conditions and the differences across individuals in the theory’s applicability. Overall, our contribution lies in identifying several underexposed or neglected issues (e.g., the definition of risk and probability weighting), in examining the advancements regarding prospect theory’s scope conditions, and in discussing avenues for further research.
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This study analyzes whether the personality traits of Members of Parliament (MPs) affect their attitudes toward the representation of gender equality issues. Based on the Big Five personality traits, we argue that Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness shape MPs' positions toward gender equality policies through two different pathways. The first pathway proposes a direct connection. While Openness is expected to positively affect MPs' support for gender equality, Conscientiousness is assumed to have a negative impact. The second pathway runs indirectly, linking Openness and Conscientiousness to preferences toward gender equality through the effect of these personality traits on MPs' general ideological positions. Using data from a survey of elite politicians in Germany and Switzerland, the results of a causal mediation analysis show a positive direct effect of Openness that holds independent of a mediating influence of political ideology. The analysis deepens our understanding of gender equality legislation and the MPs engaging in it.
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Democracy was forged in the furnaces of oppression, whether combatting tyranny or affirming the rights of the individual. As democracy is under threat in many parts of the world, there has never been a more urgent need to understand political thoughts and behaviours. This lucid and accessible book brings together a global group of scholars from psychology, political science, communication, sociology, education and psychiatry. The book's structure, based on Abraham Lincoln's well-known phrase 'Of, by and for' the people, scrutinises the psychological factors experienced by politicians as representatives 'of' the electorate, the political institutions and systems devised 'by' those we elect, and the societies that influence the context 'for' us as citizens. From trust to risk, from political values to moral and religious priorities, from the personality and language of leaders to fake news and anti-democratic forces, this book provides vital new insights for researchers, politicians and citizens alike.
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This study examines the personality traits of candidates for the Swiss government and how they are related to the candidates’ electoral chances. Switzerland as a paradigmatic consensual democracy is an ideal test case to examine the connection between the specific pattern of a democracy and the government personalities that fit it. We argue that the cultural and institutional setting of the Swiss Government increases the electoral chances of kinder and gentler personalities. To test this, we estimate regression models on a new data set of candidates covering all vacancies in the Swiss government between 1982 and 2020. Our results reveal that candidates with a higher level of agreeableness do enjoy an advantage in the electoral process for Swiss consensus government.
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Political candidate personality and electoral success in a British General Election. Self-rated political skill and political efficacy prior to election campaign as predictors of candidate electoral performance.
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Politicians’ support of or opposition to concrete policies is uniquely consequential for policymaking, public opinion, and a host of other societal outcomes. Explaining their policy positions is therefore a major research agenda in political science. Here, we evaluate the role of politicians’ personality traits, measured with the Big Five typology, in shaping how liberal or conservative their economic and social policy positions are. While existing research establishes this link among nonelites, it is far from obvious that the same holds for politicians, who have systematically different personality profiles, and whose positions are constrained by party lines. Using an in‐person study of 893 legislators in five countries who completed personality questionnaires and provided detailed issue positions, we find that Openness to Experience is strongly and positively predictive of politicians’ liberal positions on both economic and social policies, but a null relationship for Conscientiousness. We also find that Extraversion predicts more conservative economic (but not social) policy positions. We discuss implications for the role of elites’ individual characteristics in policymaking.
Chapter
Democracy was forged in the furnaces of oppression, whether combatting tyranny or affirming the rights of the individual. As democracy is under threat in many parts of the world, there has never been a more urgent need to understand political thoughts and behaviours. This lucid and accessible book brings together a global group of scholars from psychology, political science, communication, sociology, education and psychiatry. The book's structure, based on Abraham Lincoln's well-known phrase 'Of, by and for' the people, scrutinises the psychological factors experienced by politicians as representatives 'of' the electorate, the political institutions and systems devised 'by' those we elect, and the societies that influence the context 'for' us as citizens. From trust to risk, from political values to moral and religious priorities, from the personality and language of leaders to fake news and anti-democratic forces, this book provides vital new insights for researchers, politicians and citizens alike.
Chapter
The literature on elites focuses on two main phenomena: differences within elites and links between politicians and citizens. The present chapter applies this schema to the study of politicians’ personalities. As for elite differentiation, previous literature has established that right-wing politicians are more extroverted and conscientious than the rest, yet these patterns do not seem to hold everywhere, and evidence for multi-party systems is scant. As for links between politicians and citizens, the existing evidence points at consistent similarities as long as they represent or support the same party. Nevertheless, this evidence is usually limited to a handful of frontrunners, relies on citizens’ appraisals of leaders’ personalities, and/or focuses on highly personalised countries. This chapter addresses the degree of elite differentiation across party lines, and resemblance between citizens and politicians regarding personality.
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Integrating Social/Political Influence Theory with the Theory of Planned Behavior, we argue that personal resources (i.e., political skill, self‐efficacy) enable political candidates to form more ambitious campaign intentions, and thus perform better in elections. We tested this model with a sample of political candidates (N = 225) campaigning in a British general election. Three months before polling day, candidates provided self‐ratings of political skill, domain‐specific self‐efficacy (i.e., campaign efficacy), and personal campaign intentions during the campaign period. Our results demonstrated that, political skill was positively related to campaign efficacy, and intentions, via campaign efficacy. We also found a significant indirect effect for political skill on electoral performance (i.e., percentage of the vote), through campaign efficacy and intentions. Implications of our results for understanding candidate effects in campaigns and future research are discussed.
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This paper is the first to explore variation in self-reported Honesty-Humility trait levels among politicians. In a relatively representative sample of Danish candidates (n = 239) for the national parliament, we find that more experienced, female, and more right-wing politicians self-report higher levels of Honesty-Humility. Comparing the self-reports of politicians to these of a community sample, we find that politicians self-report much higher levels of Honesty-Humility than ordinary citizens do. In addition to this, politicians self-report systematically higher on the HEXACO factors Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience, and lower on Emotionality. By and large, the latter findings replicate existing work relying on Big Five/Five Factor personality models. We end with a discussion on the relevance of self-reported personality traits of politicians.
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Among both elites and the mass public, conservatives and liberal differ in their foreign policy preferences. Relatively little effort, however, has been put toward showing that, beyond the use of force, these differences affect the day-to-day outputs and processes of foreign policy. This article uses United Nations voting data from 1946 to 2008 of the five major Anglophone democracies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to show that each of these countries votes more in line with the rest of the world when liberals are in power. This can be explained by ideological differences between conservatives and liberals and the ways in which the socializing power of international institutions interact with preexisting ideologies. The results hope to encourage more research into the ways in which ideological differences among the masses and elites translate into differences in foreign policy goals and practices across governments.
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To satisfy the need in personality research for factorially univocal measures of each of the 5 domains that subsume most English-language terms for personality traits, new sets of Big-Five factor markers were investigated. In studies of adjective-anchored bipolar rating scales, a transparent format was found to produce factor markers that were more univocal than the same scales administered in the traditional format. Nonetheless, even the transparent bipolar scales proved less robust as factor markers than did parallel sets of adjectives administered in unipolar format. A set of 100 unipolar terms proved to be highly robust across quite diverse samples of self and peer descriptions. These new markers were compared with previously developed ones based on far larger sets of trait adjectives, as well as with the scales from the NEO and Hogan personality inventories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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People's enduring psychological tendencies are reflected in their traits. Contemporary research on personality establishes that traits are rooted largely in biology, and that the central aspects of personality can be captured in frameworks, or taxonomies, focused on five trait dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. In this article, we integrate a five-factor view of trait structure within a holistic model of the antecedents of political behavior, one that accounts not only for personality, but also for other factors, including biological and environmental influences. This approach permits attention to the complex processes that likely underlie trait effects, and especially to possible trait–situation interactions. Primary tests of our hypotheses draw on data from a 2006 U.S. survey, with supplemental tests introducing data from Uruguay and Venezuela. Empirical analyses not only provide evidence of the value of research on personality and politics, but also signal some of the hurdles that must be overcome for inquiry in this area to be most fruitful.
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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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[Abstract This article inquires into the impact of personality factors on the selection and self-selection of parliamentary elites. I compare personality profiles of German MPs and the German population obtained through survey research, and for some comparisons I utilize elite and mass samples matched for education, gender, and age. I ask further if MPs’ personalities have an impact on their preferences for expansionist or restricted government budgets and welfare state benefits, the extension or limitation of civic rights, and several other policies. Party affiliations of MPs are used as a control variable. I find that MPs’ personality traits differ strikingly from those of the German population and from those of followers in most of the parties with which MPs are affiliated., AbstractThis article inquires into the impact of personality factors on the selection and self-selection of parliamentary elites. I compare personality profiles of German MPs and the German population obtained through survey research, and for some comparisons I utilize elite and mass samples matched for education, gender, and age. I ask further if MPs’ personalities have an impact on their preferences for expansionist or restricted government budgets and welfare state benefits, the extension or limitation of civic rights, and several other policies. Party affiliations of MPs are used as a control variable. I find that MPs’ personality traits differ strikingly from those of the German population and from those of followers in most of the parties with which MPs are affiliated.]
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Voters' political choices have presumably come to depend more on their personal preferences and less on their social characteristics in Western democracies. We examine two aspects of personality that may influence political choice, traits and personal values, using the Five Factor Model of personality traits and the Schwartz (1992) theory of basic personal values. Data from 3044 voters for the major coalitions in the Italian national election of 2001 showed that supporters of the two coalitions differed in traits and values, largely as hypothesized. Center-left voters were higher than center-right voters in the traits of friendliness and openness and lower in energy and conscientiousness. Regarding values, center-left voters were higher than center-right voters in universalism, benevolence, and self-direction and lower in security, power, achievement, conformity, and tradition. Logistic regressions revealed that values explained substantial variance in past and future voting and in change of political choice, trumping personality traits. We discuss explanations for the primacy of values and implications for the social cognitive view of personality.
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We presented a representative list of 162 political issues currently discussed in Germany and the German NEO-FFI to 184 subjects (45% university students). Principal components analysis of the attitude items reveals four factors which are interpreted as (1) general conservatism, preference for authoritarian punitiveness, (2) social welfare and support of women's equality, (3) liberalism and affirmation of technological progress, and (4) affirmation of increase in taxation for environmental protection and the development of East Europe. The first unrotated factor is identified as general conservatism. The analysis of zero and higher order correlations shows meaningful relationships between political attitudes and personality dimensions. The highest (negative) correlations are found between openness to experience and conservatism. Age and sex effects on political attitudes are reported.
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Seven experts on personality measurement here discuss the viability of public-domain personality measures, focusing on the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) as a prototype. Since its inception in 1996, the use of items and scales from the IPIP has increased dramatically. Items from the IPIP have been translated from English into more than 25 other languages. Currently over 80 publications using IPIP scales are listed at the IPIP Web site (http://ipip.ori.org), and the rate of IPIP-related publications has been increasing rapidly. The growing popularity of the IPIP can be attributed to five factors: (1) It is cost free; (2) its items can be obtained instantaneously via the Internet; (3) it includes over 2000 items, all easily available for inspection; (4) scoring keys for IPIP scales are provided; and (5) its items can be presented in any order, interspersed with other items, reworded, translated into other languages, and administered on the World Wide Web without asking permission of anyone. The unrestricted availability of the IPIP raises concerns about possible misuse by unqualified persons, and the freedom of researchers to use the IPIP in idiosyncratic ways raises the possibility of fragmentation rather than scientific unification in personality research.
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Hypotheses about mean-level age differences in the Big Five personality domains, as well as 10 more specific facet traits within those domains, were tested in a very large cross-sectional sample (N = 1,267,218) of children, adolescents, and adults (ages 10-65) assessed over the World Wide Web. The results supported several conclusions. First, late childhood and adolescence were key periods. Across these years, age trends for some traits (a) were especially pronounced, (b) were in a direction different from the corresponding adult trends, or (c) first indicated the presence of gender differences. Second, there were some negative trends in psychosocial maturity from late childhood into adolescence, whereas adult trends were overwhelmingly in the direction of greater maturity and adjustment. Third, the related but distinguishable facet traits within each broad Big Five domain often showed distinct age trends, highlighting the importance of facet-level research for understanding life span age differences in personality.
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A rare collection of personality assessments from 103 Italian politicians revealed predictable patterns of contrasts and similarities with personality dimensions from a large normative sample (N = 4,578). Three modal personality characteristics distinguished politicians, with their significantly higher levels of Energy, Agreeableness, and Social Desirability, from the general public. Comparability between politicians and the public existed on dimensions of Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, and Openness (Big Five Questionnaire assessment). Politicians from rival coalitions differed on several dimensions; center-right was higher than center-left in Energy and Conscientiousness. Congruencies emerged between politicians and voters for their coalition on all personality dimensions, except that center-left politicians were higher in Energy than center-left voters, and center-right politicians were higher than voters in both Energy and Agreeableness.
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Previous research suggested that sex differences in personality traits are larger in prosperous, healthy, and egalitarian cultures in which women have more opportunities equal with those of men. In this article, the authors report cross-cultural findings in which this unintuitive result was replicated across samples from 55 nations (N = 17,637). On responses to the Big Five Inventory, women reported higher levels of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness than did men across most nations. These findings converge with previous studies in which different Big Five measures and more limited samples of nations were used. Overall, higher levels of human development--including long and healthy life, equal access to knowledge and education, and economic wealth--were the main nation-level predictors of larger sex differences in personality. Changes in men's personality traits appeared to be the primary cause of sex difference variation across cultures. It is proposed that heightened levels of sexual dimorphism result from personality traits of men and women being less constrained and more able to naturally diverge in developed nations. In less fortunate social and economic conditions, innate personality differences between men and women may be attenuated.
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Variance in how citizens interact with the political world constitutes one of many classes of individual difference. Understanding the antecedents of this variance is the central objective for students of political behaviour, and researchers draw on numerous factors in addressing this task. Unfortunately, one potentially vital factor, personality, has received only sporadic attention in recent decades. Neglect of personality was understandable for many years, as psychological research on personality failed to produce concise taxonomies applicable to the study of politics. As the present analysis demonstrates, however, this situation has changed. Research on personality has gained new footing with the emergence of a series of five-factor models, and these frameworks hold great potential for the study of political behaviour. This thesis is advanced in a two-part analysis. First, we outline how and why our understanding of citizen politics may be improved through application of five-factor models of personality. In doing so, we focus on the components of one specific taxonomy, the Big Five lexical model. Secondly, using three datasets, we explore the link between the Big Five personality factors and a wide array of political attitudes and behaviours. Results reveal that all facets of personality captured by the Big Five framework matter for citizen politics, and that personality effects operate on virtually all aspects of political behaviour. These findings demonstrate the insight that can emerge with further application of broad-scale models of personality.
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Empirical research is crucial for understanding the personality foundations of political preferences in modern democracies. However, few studies have addressed the personality of top politicians using standard methods to assess basic traits and personal values. In the current research, traits and values of 106 female members of the Italian Parliament were assessed in accordance with the Five-Factor Model of personality and Schwartz's taxonomy. The same variables were measured in a sample of 864 voters taken from the general population. We investigate the extent to which differences in traits and values contribute to ideological orientation of politicians and voters of rival coalitions. A similar pattern of relations was found in both groups. Yet, traits and values contributed to partisanship of politicians much more than to political preferences of voters. Whereas values fully mediated the contribution of traits to voting, energy/extraversion and agreeableness contributed to political partisanship both directly and indirectly, through values.
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Political efficacy is addressed within the framework of social cognitive theory and a new measure to assess perceived political self-efficacy is presented. Three studies document the validity of the new scale of measurement. The first study (N = 1673) examined the psychometric properties of the scale in accordance with classical test theory. This led to the identification of a unidimensional factor structure, including perceived political self-efficacy in promoting one's own political opinion, in sustaining the political programs of the party to which one belongs, and in monitoring one's own political representatives' commitment. The second study (N = 632) further confirmed the internal and construct validity of the scale; criterion validity was also investigated using several indicators of political interest and participation. The third study (N = 1176) showed that politicians holding offices have higher levels of perceived political self-efficacy than partisans and voters, further corroborating the criterion validity of the scale. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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