Big Five Personality Traits Model in Electoral Behaviour Studies

Abstract

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). …