Navigating the Authoritarian OCEAN: Personality, News and Politics in Russia

• In Event: Media & Autocracy

Abstract

Well entrenched in the study of American and Western European politics, the study of personality psychology – particularly the so-called ‘Big 5’ personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, which have been shown to predict a range of political behaviors in democracies – has only recently been extended to the study of non-democracy. This extension has yielded some theoretically surprising results, including the finding in Russia that the pro-social trait of ‘agreeableness’ – the propensity to seek harmony and avoid social conflict – is most closely associated with support for authoritarian leadership and policies. This paper replicates and extends that finding, deepening our understanding of the mechanisms that link personality and political outcomes in authoritarianism. Drawing on an original 2019 survey in Russia, the authors show (a) that ‘agreeable’ Russians tend to opt for media that embed them in what they perceive to be the largest community of opinion and interpretation in society; and (b) that it is this social embeddedness, rather than the content of media messaging as such, that has the largest effect on political opinions.

Authors

• Samuel A. Greene, King's College London

• Graeme Robertson