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Correlation not Causation: The Relationship between Personality Traits and Political Ideologies

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  • Brad Verhulst
  • Lindon J. Eaves
  • Peter K. Hatemi

Abstract

The assumption in the personality and politics literature is that a person's personality motivates them to develop certain political attitudes later in life. This assumption is founded on the simple correlation between the two constructs and the observation that personality traits are genetically influenced and develop in infancy, whereas political preferences develop later in life. Work in psychology, behavioral genetics, and recently political science, however, has demonstrated that political preferences also develop in childhood and are equally influenced by genetic factors. These findings cast doubt on the assumed causal relationship between personality and politics. Here we test the causal relationship between personality traits and political attitudes using a direction of causation structural model on a genetically informative sample. The results suggest that personality traits do not cause people to develop political attitudes; rather, the correlation between the two is a function of an innate common underlying genetic factor.

Suggested Citation

  • Brad Verhulst & Lindon J. Eaves & Peter K. Hatemi, 2012. "Correlation not Causation: The Relationship between Personality Traits and Political Ideologies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(1), pages 34-51, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:56:y:2012:i:1:p:34-51
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00568.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Sara Bormann & Debbie Claassen & Christian Hofmann & Nina Schwaiger, 2020. "Conservative traits and managerial forecasting style," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 335-368, April.
    2. Brad Verhulst & Ryne Estabrook, 2012. "Using genetic information to test causal relationships in cross-sectional data," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 24(3), pages 328-344, July.
    3. Aidt, T. S. & Rauh, C., 2017. "The Big Five personality traits and partisanship in England," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1745, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Mirela Cristea & Graţiela Georgiana Noja & Cecilia-Nicoleta Jurcuţ & Constantin Ştefan Ponea & Elena Sorina Caragiani & Alin Viorel Istodor, 2021. "The Interplay between Public Health, Well-Being and Population Aging in Europe: An Advanced Structural Equation Modelling and Gaussian Network Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-20, February.
    5. Katherine Campbell & Cullen F. Goenner & Matthew Notbohm & Adam Smedema, 2022. "Political ideology and CEO performance under crisis," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 329-359, January.
    6. Dimick, Matthew & Stegmueller, Daniel, 2015. "The Political Economy of Risk and Ideology," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 237, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    7. ONO Yoshikuni & YAMADA Masahiro, 2018. "Do Voters Prefer Gender Stereotypic Candidates? Evidence from a conjoint survey experiment in Japan," Discussion papers 18039, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Nikola Erceg & Zvonimir Galic & Andreja Bubic, 2018. "The Psychology of Economic Attitudes - Moral Foundations Predict Economic Attitudes beyond Socio-Demographic Variables," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 20(1), pages 37-70, June.
    9. K Amber Curtis & Steven V Miller, 2021. "A (supra)nationalist personality? The Big Five’s effects on political-territorial identification," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 202-226, June.
    10. Wajzer, Mateusz, 2022. "The reductionism of genopolitics in the context of the relationships between biology and political science," MPRA Paper 118482, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Aug 2023.
    11. Economou, Athina & Gavroglou, Stavros & Kollias, Christos, 2013. "Economic fluctuations and political self-placement," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 57-65.
    12. Duong, Kiet Tuan & Banti, Chiara & Instefjord, Norvald, 2021. "Managerial conservatism and corporate policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    13. Aronsson, Thomas & Hetschko, Clemens & Schöb, Ronnie, 2020. "Globalization, Time-Preferences, and Populist Voting," Umeå Economic Studies 978, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    14. Zoltán Fazekas & Levente Littvay, 2012. "Choosing sides: The genetics of why we go with the loudest," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 24(3), pages 389-408, July.
    15. Rona Bušljeta & Marko Kardum, 2019. "“School for Life “- Theoretical Background and Analyisis of Croatian Reform in School Education," European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 6, May - Aug.
    16. Salomon, Katja, 2020. "Dynamics of immigrant resentment in Europe," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2020-002, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    17. Niklas Harring & Sverker C. Jagers & Simon Matti, 2017. "Public Support for Pro-Environmental Policy Measures: Examining the Impact of Personal Values and Ideology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-14, April.
    18. Achyuta Adhvaryu & James Fenske, 2014. "Conflict and the Formation of Political Beliefs in Africa," HiCN Working Papers 164, Households in Conflict Network.

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