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Individual Differences and Political Contexts –The Role of Personality Traits and Direct Democracy in Explaining Political Protest
Author(s) -
Ackermann Kathrin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
swiss political science review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.632
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1662-6370
pISSN - 1424-7755
DOI - 10.1111/spsr.12227
Subject(s) - openness to experience , extraversion and introversion , personality , politics , big five personality traits , social psychology , context (archaeology) , democracy , psychology , variance (accounting) , multilevel model , situational ethics , neuroticism , citizen journalism , political science , economics , law , paleontology , accounting , machine learning , biology , computer science
Abstract Building on a growing literature concerned with the link between psychological dispositions and political protest behavior, we argue that this relationship is not universal, but rather depends on contextual factors. Political context factors are able to alter the meaning and understanding of participatory repertoires. This, in turn, leads to differential effects of personality on participation. We argue that direct democracy constitutes such a political context that can act as moderating factor with regard to protest participation. In order to test this interaction between person and situation empirically, we conduct a subnational comparative analysis of the Swiss cantons. Hierarchical regression models reveal that the personality traits openness to experience and extraversion affect protest behavior directly. Most importantly, however, the link between openness to experience and protest participation is significantly moderated by direct democracy. This provides evidence for variance in the situational expression of personality traits.