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Personality Foundations of Ideological Divide: A Comparison of Women Members of Parliament and Women Voters in Italy
Author(s) -
Caprara Gianvittorio,
Francescato Donata,
Mebane Minou,
Sorace Roberta,
Vecchione Michele
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
political psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.419
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-9221
pISSN - 0162-895X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2010.00780.x
Subject(s) - agreeableness , parliament , big five personality traits , ideology , personality , social psychology , extraversion and introversion , politics , voting , psychology , population , biology and political orientation , political science , sociology , law , demography
Empirical research is crucial for understanding the personality foundations of political preferences in modern democracies. However, few studies have addressed the personality of top politicians using standard methods to assess basic traits and personal values. In the current research, traits and values of 106 female members of the Italian Parliament were assessed in accordance with the Five‐Factor Model of personality and Schwartz's taxonomy. The same variables were measured in a sample of 864 voters taken from the general population. We investigate the extent to which differences in traits and values contribute to ideological orientation of politicians and voters of rival coalitions. A similar pattern of relations was found in both groups. Yet, traits and values contributed to partisanship of politicians much more than to political preferences of voters. Whereas values fully mediated the contribution of traits to voting, energy/extraversion and agreeableness contributed to political partisanship both directly and indirectly, through values.