The Big-Five Personality Traits and Political Attitudes in China

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Psychology: Applications in Political Psychology

Abstract

Basic personality traits have been consistently shown to be strong, independent predictors of political stances in democracies. Yet, relevant studies on China have been unavailable. This article uses a survey study to examine how the Big Five traits predict the Chinese people’s three major political stances vis-à-vis the regime in authoritarian context: adherence to current single-party socialist political system, support of civil liberties vis-à-vis the regime, and demand for electoral democracy. It finds that the Big Five model significantly predicts the Chinese people’s political attitudes. Specifically, extroversion predicts support for both civil liberties and electoral democracy in China. Agreeableness is positively associated with adherence to the current system, negatively associated with support for civil liberties, and positively associated with demand for electoral democracy. Meanwhile, conscientiousness is only positively associated with support for electoral democracy. Moreover, both openness to experience and neuroticism predict support for civil liberties and demand for electoral democracy. Importantly, similar to existing literature in democratic context, personality traits work as independent predictors of political ideology in China after sociodemographic predictors have been controlled.

Author

• Zhongyun Zhang, University of Notre Dame