Chapter 34: Personality and Politics

Personality and Politics academic exploration asserts that personality, encompassing both enduring traits and motivational values, plays an increasingly influential role in determining ideological orientation and political preferences, often surpassing the predictive power of traditional socio-demographic variables like age or income. The chapter first outlines two major perspectives on personality: one viewing it as a self-regulatory agentic system capable of purposeful reflection and interaction with the environment based on personal goals; the other defining it as an architecture of habitual behaviors used to distinguish individuals and predict their conduct. These views contribute to understanding the personalization of contemporary politics, which involves both the perceived characteristics of political candidates and the actual personality foundations of voters' and politicians' ideological decisions. Historically, the study of personality in politics evolved from early psychoanalytical approaches focusing on leaders (e.g., The Authoritarian Personality) to later nomothetical studies exploring concepts like dogmatism and alienation, though these early efforts were hindered by the lack of a standardized assessment framework. Recent research has achieved a major breakthrough by adopting consensual taxonomies: the Big Five (Five-Factor Model) for traits and Schwartz’s ten basic values. Findings consistently demonstrate that Openness to Experience is the key personality trait differentiating political orientation, with individuals scoring high on Openness affiliating with liberal, progressive, or center-left views, while those scoring low (Closeness) prefer conservative or right-wing views. Regarding values, research indicates that the political divide is significantly predicted by which values are prioritized. Centre-left partisans consistently assign higher importance to Self-transcendence values (universalism, benevolence) and lower importance to Conservation values (security, conformity, tradition) and Self-enhancement values (power, achievement) compared to center-right voters. These values, which represent enduring goals, were found to be superior to traits in accounting for ideological orientation. The authors propose that personality sets the foundation for the major ideological division in Western democracies, especially as traditional sources of political stability, like party identification, decline. While genetics may shape initial sensitivities toward liberal or conservative ideologies, environmental influences are critical in translating these potentials into stable preferences, emphasizing a concept of genetic probabilism rather than determinism. Ultimately, the ideological divide reflects individuals' inherent needs and diversities in pursuing fulfillment, necessitating further cross-cultural studies to confirm these findings across varied political systems.