Facets of personality and “ideological asymmetries”

•Investigates associations between personality facets and political preferences.•Uses the BFI-2 to measure personality in a German general population sample.•Analyses apply bifactor structural equation modeling.•Open-Mindedness and Agreeableness facets predicted left-wing/liberal attitudes.•Domain-l...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of research in personality 2018-12, Vol.77, p.90-100
Main Authors: Aichholzer, Julian, Danner, Daniel, Rammstedt, Beatrice
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bifactor model
Big Five facets
Germany
Personality
Political attitudes
Voting
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Investigates associations between personality facets and political preferences.•Uses the BFI-2 to measure personality in a German general population sample.•Analyses apply bifactor structural equation modeling.•Open-Mindedness and Agreeableness facets predicted left-wing/liberal attitudes.•Domain-level Conscientiousness specifically predicted far-right party support. How do individual personality traits shape political leanings or “ideological asymmetries”? The present study investigates the association between political preferences, global personality domains and specific personality facets. We measured personality domains and facets in a heterogeneous German sample using the 60-item Big Five Inventory-2 and used bi-factor structural equation models to investigate associations with attitudes and party support. Our results demonstrate the unique explanatory power of personality facets. In particular, specific facets of Open-Mindedness and Agreeableness exhibited unique relationships with left-wing/liberal attitudes and party preferences, whereas supporters of (far) right-wing parties could be distinguished in overall Conscientiousness. These findings have important implications for our understanding of how individuals’ basic patterns of thoughts and feelings relate to their ideological leanings.
ISSN:0092-6566
1095-7251
DOI:10.1016/j.jrp.2018.09.010