Today in American politics, partisan antipathy has significantly risen. According to Pew Research Republicans who have an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party has climbed from 17% to 43% in the last 20 years. Similarly, with Democrats, their unfavorable opinion of Republicans has more than doubled from 16% to 38%. The founding fathers warned the American people on multiple occasions about the dangers of a divided nation. In the early 19th century the American President, Abraham Lincoln, said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”. That said, it can easily be understood why the American people must unite and understand their differences better. To understand a person’s ideology, it must be understood what causes a person to think the way that they do. Many Political scientist have studied multiple factors that affect political ideology. However, a person’s inherent personality traits distinctly affect their political ideology.
Research on political behavior seeks to comprehend the rational of people’s actions when it comes to politics. Also, why individuals identify as conservatives or liberals, why they approve or disapprove on certain issues, why they did or did not vote, and why they follow or do not follow news and politics. Scholars hope that by understanding the way individuals
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behave and the way they vote, they can promote more intellectual citizenship and inevitably bring about more qualified elected officials.
Like all human behavior, political behavior is influenced by many factors. Some are external, such as the surrounding family and friends, current political system, occurrence of an economic downturn, and the ruling class such as powerful media corporations and politicians. With the external factors in mind, most individuals would assume that personalities are best conceived as personal character rather than external forces bestowed on an individual. To completely understand how personality affects political ideology, one must understand both personality and what influences personality.
Personality can be defined as the multifaceted and enduring internal, or psychological, structure that influences patterns of behavior (Mondak, 2010). To further explain the definition, individuals are not assigned their personalities; it is who they are. Also, it cannot me measured directly. Personality is measured indirectly with outside information about the general patterns assumed to be related to different components of personality. Lastly, it is crucial to understand that personality is highly heritable. Meaning much of the variety in personality is rooted in biology (e.g., Riemann, Angleitner, & Strelau, 1997).
Political scientist study personality in order to understand why individuals in the same economic and political environment differ in political ideology. Recent research has covered many complex topics including: what influences an individual to be engaged or not engaged, what influences an individual to like or dislike certain politicians and policies, and how region affects political association. According to Oxford Research, findings from the following studies include: (1) politically minded and informed citizens usually show high levels of openness and experience, (2) ideological liberalism is more prevalent in individuals high in openness and low in conscientiousness, and (3) citizens are more likely to participate in politics if they are high in openness and extraversion.
There are multiple methods to characterizing different personalities. In fact, many people have taken personality tests online that claim to reveal which celebrity or animal they are most like. Individuals deal with personalities every day. That said, social scientist spends a significant amount of time researching personality and trying to define it using many methods. However, the most prominent approach to studying personality in political science is the Big Five, or Five-Factor, approach. The Big-Five approach emerged out of research conducted by the U.S. Air Force in the late 1950s (e.g., Tupes & Christal, 1958). Although the approach did not reach its full potential until the 1980s when it was adopted by personality psychologist (e.g., Costa & McCrae, 1988). The Big-Five approach focuses on openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Each of the five traits are referred to as dimensions because each is extremely broad affecting individuals in several ways at multiple levels depending on how high they score within the trait dimension.
First of the trait dimensions is openness. It refers to curiosity about the world, ambition to learn about opposing perspectives, and to try new activities. Individuals scoring high in openness are characterized as being creative, analytical, and imaginative. Individuals possessing this trait tend to be well-informed (Mondak, 2010). However, these individuals often show to being willing to take risk, such as experimenting with drugs and alcohol. (Booth-Kewley & Vickers, 1994)
Conscientiousness is a trait dimension that is prevalent in individuals that tend to be organized, punctual, hardworking, and industrious. These individuals strive to do what is right. People high in conscientiousness mostly live healthy lifestyles, and avoid personal risk (Booth- Kewley & Vickers, 1994)
Extraversion is the personality trait dimension found in individuals that are very social. They are bold, outgoing, and talkative. (e.g., Barrick & Mount, 1991)
Agreeableness is the personality trait dimension found primarily in individuals described as “warm”, “kind”, “sympathetic”, and “generous”. Individuals scoring high in agreeableness tend to have great interpersonal skills and are very trustworthy (e.g., Lounsbury, Loveland, & Gibson, 2003)
Lastly, neuroticism is the personality trait dimension that is associated with individuals described as emotionally unstable. Individuals with high levels of neuroticism tend to struggle with depression. In comparison, individuals with low levels of neuroticism tend to choose certain career paths such as becoming a surgeon or a clergy member (Francis & Kay, 1995)
Each trait dimension trait uniquely affects the individual. First, the individuals that score high in openness tend to lean left on economic policies because of their willingness to experiment and they also tend lean left on social issues because of their tolerance for novelty and complexity. They also have a curiosity for information on all subjects. Politics should not be any different. Overall, research shows that individuals scoring high in openness tend to be liberal while individuals scoring high in conscientiousness tend to lean conservative (e.g., Gerber, Huber, Doherty, Dowling, & Ha, 2010; Sibley, Osborne, & Duckitt, 2012).
Extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism are also sometimes significant in correlation with political views. However, they are more random. Individuals scoring high in extraversion tend to participate in social forms of political participation, but not exactly by themselves. This is because extroverts are drawn to social interaction not necessarily the politics itself. Whereas, individuals high in conscientiousness would feel obligated to be a good citizen by being politically engaged. However, highly conscious individuals tend to have a negative relationship to participating in political protest (Mondak, 2010). Although subjective, individuals scoring high in agreeableness tend to lean liberal on economic policies (because they want to help the disadvantaged) and right on social issues (because they desire to maintain social harmony and traditional communal relationships).
In conclusion, everyone possesses unique personality traits that do not always affect political ideology in the same manner as others who also score high in the same personality trait. This is because there are multiple factors that affect political ideology. That is why scholars must continue to study the realm of personality trait dimensions. However, research has proven that personality traits do affect political ideology. And in a political environment as complex as today, with the growing polarization, it is even more important than ever to understand the world of politics. Therefore, individuals must not only identify their own personality traits but also understand the personality traits of others. That way they understand others better.