Big five personality traits model in electoral behaviour studies.

• Author: Turska-Kawa, Agnieszka
• Position: Report

Introduction

The foundation of this study is the belief that personality and politics are integral planes that intertwine at the level of various decisions and behaviours. The following considerations are a result of the author's research into psychological, personality structure related, determinants of the electoral behaviour of individuals. Questions about the determinants of voting behaviour are not only posed by psychologists, but also by sociologists, political scientists and historians. However, the approach presented in this article appears to be extremely relevant. First of all, this is because personality features play an intermediate role in moderating electoral behaviour, whilst it is the individual himself, who moderates the influence exerted by the surrounding environment and his voting behaviour. This relationship takes the shape depicted by the formula:

environment [right arrow] personality [right arrow] voting behaviour,

which means that similar influences originating in the voters' environments will lead to different behaviours depending on the individuals' personality structures. As a result, the social characteristics of individuals impact their voting behaviour. However, external influence is moderated by the personal predispositions of the individuals, which significantly neutralises the direct impact of the influencing agent, and raises the importance of the personality factor. Secondly, the study of personality determinants finds important applications in various areas of social process design and analysis. One of its uses can be found in psychographic electoral market segmentation, involving the identification of target voter groups based on variables such as lifestyle or personality. Another application is in the design of electoral messages, which is based on the premise that similar ideas can be in fact presented to the public in a variety of ways: They can be strengthened by positive emotions, presented as challenges, take the form of negative campaign, invoke anxiety or give a sense of security, etc.--their effectiveness should take into account the psychological characteristics of potential voters. During each election campaign much attention is given to the issue of passive or undecided voters. A diagnosis of their personal predispositions in this case is particularly important as this makes it possible to build strategies aimed at activating such voters and encouraging them to take active participation in an election.

The aim of the study was to verify the links between voter personalities and their electoral behaviour. A personality profile model utilising a trait-based definition of personality as per the "Big Five" model was used in the study. The analysis presented in this work refers to the trait theory of personality. Personality is defined here as a set of traits, that on the one hand are the foundation of consistency of behaviour, and on the other--of the individual's identity. These characteristics are formed in the process of integrating genetic and environmental factors. They can be defined as the dimensions of individual differences as regards the tendency to exhibit consistent patterns of thinking, feeling and action (Costa&McCrae, 2005: 40). Their essential role is to maintain consistency, both time-wise and transsituationally--the greater the strength of a particular trait in people, the more likely it is that they shall exhibit a certain behaviour, which a given characteristic predetermines. The traits, individual strengths and inter-relations determine the individual's specific adaptation to the demands of the environment, especially of the social kind (Strelau & Dolihski, 2008:799). One of the fundamental theorems of the traits theory of personality states that there is a direct relationship between actions undertaken by an individual, which are associated with a particular trait, and the said individual possessing this trait (2).

The author analysed the relationship between traits and a specific type of behaviour, namely electoral behaviour, defined on the one hand as participation or lack thereof in the vote, and on the other--as making a particular preferential decision. In democratic systems, voting decisions are one of the most important links in the political process. In addition, voting behaviour itself possesses characteristics that determine its distinctiveness from other behaviours: (a) it is a behaviour which occurs relatively rarely, (b) an ordinary, single individual has little influence on what the subject of choice is, (c) the impact of a single person on the outcome of the election is very small, (d) numerous studies indicate that the level of political knowledge in democratic societies is negligible, (e) the outcome of elections in developed and established democracies of the West has very little impact on the daily life of the ordinary citizen (Korzeniowski, 2002: 237-238). An ordinary, single individual has little influence on what the subject of choice is, the impact of a single person on the outcome of the election is very small.

Electoral activity involves a show of support for a specific entity running in an election by the individual casting a vote in its favour. An important part in the analysis of such behaviour is, first of all, the level of identification with the entity the individual chose to vote for, as it is assumed that stronger identification translates into greater stability of voting behaviour over time. Identification provides the individual with a sense of confirmation of his/her system of values, beliefs and attitudes. Secondly, an important part of the analysis of voting behaviour is political distrust, which is understood as a generalised attitude towards politics, in which entities competing on the electoral market carry out their struggle for domination. Political distrust is one of the key elements involved in an individual's sense of alienation, which is defined by researchers as a feeling of isolation the individual experiences with regard to institutions and organizations, leaders and elites which exercise power (Turska-Kawa 2011A). The offer political entities present to the citizens in the course of an election campaign, the way political promises and objectives various entities pursue are executed between consecutive elections, is too much information for the average citizen to single out and analyse separately in order to develop a personal political choice. In addition, the speed with which information circulates these days often leads to various bits of information merging into one. The difficulty in absorbing the information is first of all caused by its shear multitude, second of all, by the voters' time constraints, and thirdly, by the specific interpretation of the information as presented by the communication channel, through which the information is broadcast. Both party identification, as well as political trust, form a bridge connecting the voter with a particular political entity, and allows the mentioned obstacles to be overcome. They allow the voter to actively participate in making important decisions for the benefit of the state, without paying a significant psychological price, as would be the case if one had to keep track of exactly what was going on in politics, analyse political offers and devote a lot of one's personal time on performing such activities.

It should be noted that the relative persistence and resistance of certain personality traits to change does not mean that one will exhibit stable voting behaviour. The fact that mental dispositions are relatively persistent variables means only that individuals sharing similar characteristics will respond similarly to the same electoral messages, while their similar needs, arising from these dispositions, will implicate a desire to receive certain electoral messages and reject others. For example, individuals with elevated dispositional anxiety levels will give preference to messages providing them with a sense of security. These messages will often begin from the third person plural "we", which gives a sense of belonging to a community and sharing responsibility for action. In turn, those with high levels of responsibility traits will be motivated by the content offering them the opportunity for self-realisation, social activity, action, for the pursuit of objectives, and by messages giving them a sense of individuality. As such, there are no permanent ties with the political entity. However, the level of stability in voting behaviour is determined by the consistency of the content and form of electoral messages targeting potential voters. Therefore, if a message fits the traits characteristic for an individual, then one can expect greater commitment and loyalty on the voter's part. However, if the message requires the voter to activate resources that the individual lacks, a series of defence mechanisms could be triggered, including a decision to refuse to vote altogether (Turska-Kawa, 2013: 51).

In the literature of the subject there have been attempts to verify the links between the characteristics of the five-factor model and voting behaviour. Research on the relationship between conscientiousness and electoral activity has not thus far produced any conclusive results. Some studies confirm that a more conscientious person is more likely to participate in an election (Denny & Doyle, 2008). These are individuals for whom making use of their right to vote is the norm, an internalized civic duty (Mondak, Hibbing, Canache, Seligson&Anderson, 2010). However, other results indicate that individuals with higher levels of conscientiousness are less likely to participate in elections, which--as explained by Alan S. Gerber, Gregory A. Huber, David Doherty, Conor M. Dowling, Costas Panagopoulos (2011)--may be associated with the fact they are less likely to engage in any activity that does not bring them direct instrumental...