This blog is a summary of our published article: Blais, J., Mungall, L. R., & Pruysers, S. (2022). Personality, political ideology, and partisanship in Canada. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000355
Written by: Samantha Williams
Political orientation is based on people’s values, opinions, and beliefs about society and how it should be run. We often hear political orientation described in terms of being “left wing” or “right wing.”[1]
People who are “left wing” are often described as liberals. Liberals are thought to advocate for social change and equality. People who are “right wing” are often described as conservatives. Conservatives are thought to oppose social change and be more accepting of authority and order. [2] Political partisanship refers specifically to which political party people support and vote for.
We know that personality traits are related to political identity. For example, people who are more open to experiences (curious, artistic, and unconventional) also tend to identify as left wing and vote for liberal parties. People who are not open to new experiences tend to identify as right wing and vote for conservative parties. [3]
Photo by ElisaRiva via Canva
In this study, we wanted to see which personality traits were related to political orientation in Canadians.
Specifically, we looked at:
Honesty-humility (e.g., sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance)
Emotionality (e.g., vulnerability, sentimentality, anxiety)
Openness to experience (e.g., curious, artistic, unconventional)
Extraversion (e.g., gregarious, excitement-seeking)
Agreeableness (e.g., gentleness, lack of anger/hostility)
Conscientiousness (e.g., efficient, organized, thorough)
Psychopathy (e.g., antisociality, impulsivity, irresponsibility, lack of remorse & emotional expression)
Machiavellianism (e.g., callousness, cynicism, manipulation)
Narcissism (e.g., social boldness, vanity, egocentrism)
We recruited 2,551 Canadian citizens who were of voting age (18+). The sample had similar demographics (age, gender, and race) as the broader Canadian population. Participants completed a survey where they answered questions about their personality, their political orientation (e.g., left wing, right wing), and which party they voted for (e.g., Conservative, Liberal, New Democrat, Green).
We found that the farther right people were, the higher they scored on narcissism and antisocial behaviours like rule breaking. They also were less impulsive and more responsible. Machiavellianism wasn’t related to being either left or right wing, making it an ideologically neutral trait.
People who voted Conservative scored low on honesty-humility, openness, irresponsibility, and impulsivity. They also scored high on extraversion. Conservative voters demonstrated a lack of remorse and emotional expression
People who voted for Liberals scored higher in agreeableness and narcissism, but lower in Machiavellianism. Unlike conservatives, Liberal voters felt remorse and had more emotional expression.
People who voted for the Green party scored higher in honesty-humility, openness, and antisocial behaviours. They also scored lower on conscientiousness.
New Democrat voters scored high on openness. There was no association between voting New Democrat and any of the psychopathy traits, whether positive or negative.
This study found that identifying as left or right wing does not mean you vote for a specific party. In fact, people who identified as left wing voted for many different parties. On the other hand, right wing people tended to vote for only the Conservative party.
These findings are important because they indicate that political orientation and voting for a specific party differs based on personality traits.
References
[1] Bauer, P. C., Barberá, P., Ackermann, K., & Venetz, A. (2017). Is the left–right scale a valid measure of ideology? Political Behavior, 39(3), 553–583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-016-9368-2
[2] Jost, J. T., Federico, C. M., & Napier, J. L. (2009). Political ideology: Its structure, functions, and elective affinities. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 307–337. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163600
[3] Bergeron, T., & Galipeau, T. (2021). The political implications of personality in Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 54(2), 292–315. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423921000251
Comments