Ethnic Minority Background and Personality Characteristics: Evidence from a Representative Sample of the Adult Population

I measure statistical differences in personality characteristics (personality traits, attitudes, and values) between individuals with an ethnic minority vs. ethnic majority background. This analysis might inform research on explanations of discrimination, as some researchers have proposed that discrimination might be based on statistical group differences in unobserved characteristics, such as personality characteristics (statistical discrimination). I use data of N = 6,330 individuals from a representative sample of the adult population in Germany. Analogously to field experiments showing ethnic discrimination, only individuals who have completed secondary schooling in Germany are considered in the analyses. The results suggest that, on average, ethnic minority individuals score slightly higher in openness and slightly lower in conscientiousness than ethnic majority individuals. These statistical differences are more robust—but still small—when demographic factors and measures of the qualification level are held constant. I find no significant ethnic differences in the other Big Five personality traits, feeling of connectedness to the majority population, or gender equality values. Overall, the results provide only weak support for the theory of statistical discrimination as a potential explanation of ethnic discrimination.