The relationship between Openness to Experience and political ideology

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The relationship between Openness to Experience
and political ideology

• Ting Mi
• Rong Xing
• Qian Zhang

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1 Introduction

• Alain van Hiela,, Malgorzata Kossowskab, Ivan
  Mervieldea
• Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000)
  741751
• The Five-Factor Model, a dimensional
  representation of personality structure referring
  to Extraversion (I), Agreeableness (II),
  Conscientiousness (III), Neuroticism (IV) and
  Openness to Experience.
• The NEO-PI-R (Costa McCrae, 1989 1992) has
  been widely used to measure personality factors.

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1 introduction

• 1.1 Related studies
• Recent studies on the relationship between the
  Five-Factor personality Model and political
  attitudes report a negative relationship between
  Openness to Experience and conservatism or
  authoritarianism (Altemeyer, 1996 McCrae, 1996
  McCrae Costa, 1997 Peterson, Smerles
  Wentworth, 1997 Riemann, Grubich, Hempel, Mergl
  Richter, 1993 Trapnell, 1994 VanHiel
  Mervielde, 1996a,b).
• political beliefs were operationalized as
  factor-analytic dimensions constructed from a
  large pool of items covering various political
  issues. The major dimension underlying these
  political issues was identified as General
  conservatism. The correlations between Openness
  to Experience and the General conservatism
  dimension in the Riemann et al. (1993) study and
  the Van Hiel and Mervielde (1996a 1996b)studies
  were negative and very strong.

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1 introduction

• 1.1Related studies
• Trapnell (1994) reports significant correlations
  between the Openness to Experience facet scores
  and the Wilson and Patterson (1968) conservatism
  scale (ÿ0.18 ltr ltÿ0.64, N 789) and Altemeyer's
  Right-wing (1981) authoritarianism scale.
• McCrae (1996) selected items from Gough's
  California Psychological Inventory that
  correspond to the original categories of Adorno,
  FrenkelBrunswik, Levinson and Sanford's (1950)
  F-scale and found significant negative
  correlations (ÿ0.12 ltr ltÿ0.35,N348) between
  Openness and these items.

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1 introduction

• 1.1 Related studies
• Peterson et al. (1997) obtained a negative
  correlation between Openness measured by a
  questionnaire consisting of personality-descriptiv
  e adjectives (John, Donahue Kentle, 1991) and
  Altermeyer's (1988) Right-Wing Authoritarianism
  scale in an American student sample(rÿ0.36, N
  198) as well as in the sample of these students'
  parents(rÿ0.33, N157).

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2 method

• 2.1 sample
• Most of the research on variables has been
  carried out with samples of social science
  students. These samples often include people with
  a left-wing, anti-authoritarian ideology.
• According to Eysenck (1954, 1981 see also
  Rokeach, 1960 Wilson, 1973) fascists and
  communists have many attitudes in common that are
  contrary to those of advocates of democratic
  parties. This perspective would suggest that low
  levels of Openness may be obtained among true
  extremists as opposed to moderates.
• Find a way to provide a test of the relationship
  between Openness and ideology in a sample of
  political left-wing and right-wing extremists

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2 method
type members Number(431) Mean age
Sample 1 political party sample 1 Flemish members of an extreme right-wing political party1 (N24) 2 extreme left-wing(N 16) 3 moderate political parties (N39) 80(53 males and 25 females) 38.25
Sample 2 student sample 1 65 left-side of the scale 2 23 neutral stance 3 12 right-hand of the scale 105(36 males and 79 females) 21
Sample 3 adult sample 1 36 left-side of the scale 2 33 neutral stance 3 31 right-hand of the scale 100(48 males and 47 females) 36.31
Sample 4 adult sample 1 27.4 left-side of the scale 2 18.5 neutral stance 3 54 right-hand of the scale 106(66 males and 79 females) 39.22
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2 method

• 2.2 Questionnaires
• Openness to ExperienceFantasy (O1), Aesthetics
  (O2) Feelings(O3), Actions (O4), Ideas (O5), and
  Values (O6).
• Ideological variables
• 1 General conservatism dimension of the political
  belief questionnaire (Van Hiel Mervielde,
  1996a) sample 1-3
• 2 nine-point scales to what extent they agreed
  with the program of the six major political
  parties. sample1-3
• 3 a self-placement left/right scale, with nine
  categories, ranging from 1 (left) to 9(right).
  Sample 2 and sample 3 (Correlations
  between the principal component representing
  political preferences and the self-placement
  left/right scale were high and positive)
• 4 a questionnaire (Boski, 1993) designed to
  assess conservative beliefs Poland.
  sample4

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3. Results

• 3.1. NEO-FFI Openness and right-wing ideology
• Principal component
  conservation beliefs (all pslt0.001)
• Political party student adult
  Flemish adult Polish
• r 0.61 0.61
  0.45 0.58

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3. Results

• Results of previous studies

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3. Results

• NEO-FFI Openness scale left/right
  scale
• Flemish student adult Flemish
  adult Polish (pslt0.001)
• r -0.47
  -0.47 -0.37
• political party (ns.)
• r -0.14
• Analyses applying Fischer's r to z
  transformation revealed that this relationship
  was significantly weaker in the political party
  sample than in the other samples.
• (zsgt1.63, pslt0.05)

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3. Results

• left/right scale Openness
  scale
• adult Flemish student
  (pslt0.001)
• r -0.46 -0.37
• adult Polish (plt0.05)
• r -0.22
• political party (ns.)
• r -0.05
• Further analyses revealed significant lower
  correlations in the adult Polish sample and the
  political party sample than in the adult Flemish
  sample
• (zs gt1.92, ps lt0.05)
• A significant difference (z 1.96, p lt0.05)
  between the student sample and the political
  party sample was also found

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3. Results

• 3.2. The relationships between political ideology
  and the Openness facet scores
• Values show high correlations with political
  ideology in all samples
• A positive relationship between Ideas and
  political ideology was noted in the political
  party sample
• Fantasy and Actions are clearly the most robust
  ideological correlates and show significant
  relationships in the expected direction in the
  Flemish samples
• Aesthetics and especially Feelings are weaker
  correlates of political ideology

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4 Discussion

• The first aim of this study
• assess differences among the samples regarding
  the relationship between political ideology and
  Openness to Experience
• The results revealed
• correlations between Openness and right-wing
  ideology
• were significant and negative in the Flemish
  student sample and both adult samples
• A much weaker relationships in the adult Polish
  sample was found when the Values items were
  excluded.
• correlations were significantly lower in the
  political party sample than in the other two
  Flemish samples.

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• The second aim of this study
• assess the generality of the relationship across
  all Openness facets.
• The results showed
• the most robust
  correlates
• much
  weaker correlates
• 
  inconsistent

Fantasy Actions Values
political ideology
Feelings Aesthetics
Ideas
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• In the remainder we focus on three topics
• 1.the results of the Polish sample
• 2.the Flemish political party sample
• 3.the theoretical meaning of the results obtained
  at the facet-level.

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Results obtained in the Polish sample
A much weaker correlations (between Openness and
right-wing ideology) in the adult Polish sample
was found when the Values items were excluded.
Poland Poland
Expected Present result
adherents of communist ideology would be low on Openness to Values (as authoritarianism was strongly associated with support for communism) people who are open to Values are attracted to left-wing political parties (analogous to Western)

• Why
• Suggests that the meaning of these values has
  already shifted in the direction of a Western
  conception.

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• In Poland, communist values may have disappeared
  more quickly, because
• First, communism was less successful in
  penetrating the social system (Schwartz Bardi,
  1997).
• Second, economic transitions proceed at a much
  faster rate than in the other Eastern European
  countries.
• Moreover, Poland can be considered as an outlier
  in the central European region as well.
• More traditional values be endorsed than other
  ex-communist society
• nationalistic feelings flourish in Poland
• Alternative' expressions of traditionalism

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Results obtained in the political party sample

• research tradition-sample is not typical
• A debate on the characteristics of political
  extremists developed since the 1950s
• for which hardly any empirical data is available.
  
• Many political psychologists ... typically
  base their case on intuitive evidence...
  concerning apparent similarities between regimes
  of the far left and far right, rather than on a
  systematic review of the empirical data on any
  personality and ideology''. (Stone and
  Smith,1993, p. 154)
• Most of these studies were conducted with social
  science students.
• Few of them used samples more or less
  representative for the electorate.
• consequences
• lack of data on real extremists', some studies
  have found them to exhibit higher degrees of
  authoritarianism and dogmatism

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• From this historical perspective then, the
  confirmation of the relationship between Openness
  to Experience and political ideology in a sample
  of truly high scoring left-wing and right-wing
  extremist groups deserves special attention.

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4 Discussion

• Present result
• The negative relationship between right-wing
  ideology and Openness to Fantasy and Actions
  confirms our expectations.
• These results suggest certain similarities of the
  relationship between personality and political
  ideology among political party members as well as
  among students and adults.
• The finding that Openness to Ideas is associated
  with the membership of right-wing extreme parties
  is puzzling and difficult to explain.
• As Openness to Ideas refers to Intellectual
  curiosity... active pursuit of intellectual
  interests for their own sake... a willingness to
  consider new, perhaps unconventional ideas''
  (Costa McCrae, 1992, p. 17), one would
  certainly expect low levels of it among
  right-wing extremists.

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Results on the feelings facets

• Previous studies
• Adorno et al. (1950)
• claims that authoritarians are characterized by
  low attention to feelings and subjectivity.
• low levels of Feelings closely resembles Adorno
  et al.'s anti-intraception facet of the F-scale.
• anti-intraception refers to Opposition to the
  subjective, the imaginative, the tender-minded''
  (p. 256).
• Trapnell (1994)
• claims that some of his results are articulated
  many years ago by Adorno et al. (1950).
• Present results
• do not corroborate these assumptions, but
  instead, are in agreement with Altemeyer's (1981)
  thesis that anti-intraception is not related to
  right-wing ideology.

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5 Conclusions

• It is important to note that neither in the case
  of intraception, nor in the case of
  intellectualism, the NEO-PI-R operationalization
  of Openness to Experience concept exhausts all
  possibilities for studying these phenomena.
• Subsequent research should
• different measures probing for Openness to
  Feelings and Ideas
• alternative measures for the other facets.
• the finding that
• certain Openness facets show stronger
  relationships with ideology than other facets may
  be a guide for future research.
• the study of the underlying facet structure of
  the broad domain factors can serve as a tool for
  further refinement of previous research on the
  relationship between ideology and personality.

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• Thank you!