Mood and Personality Predictors of Political Preference/Affiliation
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Date
2015-11-12
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Abstract
With the upcoming presidential election in 2016, there is a growing interest in voting patterns and political affiliations. Of particular interest in the present research is the relationship between political affiliations and voting patterns as it relates to young voters. In general, young voters are notorious for not taking part in the political processes. The aim of the present study is to investigate the role that mood and selected personality variables play in political affiliations amongst college students. Subjects were asked to select their political preference/affiliation from the following six categories: Conservative Republican, Moderate Republican, Conservative Democrat, Liberal Democrat, Libertarian, and no political preference/affiliation. After the latter was determined, analyses were conducted to ascertain how the mood and personality variables interact with political preferences/affiliation. To measure mood and personality variables of our subjects, we used the following scales: NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), and Right Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWA-ACS). The objective of this research project was to investigate how student’s mood and personality predict their political preference/affiliation. Participants were 114 undergraduates (40 males; 72 females; one not sure; one no gender indication) who were asked to indicate political affiliation (Conservative Republican, Moderate Republican, Conservative Democrat, Liberal Democrat, Libertarian, and no allifiation) and completed the NEO-PI Big-Five and the RWAS. Anonymity was assured at all times. SAS procedures were employed to conduct a MANOVA comparing political affiliation groups on the NEO-PI Big-Five and RWAS measures. A significant Wilks’ λ F75, 445) =1.81, p<.0001 was observed. The RWAS Aggression scale {F (5,106) = 8.95, p<.0001)}, the RWAS Conventionalism scale {F(5,106) = 6.54, p<.0001)}and the RWAS Submission scale {F(5,106) =11.62, p<.0001)} all proved highly significant. Conservative Republicans (Mean 13.54; SE .59) scored significantly (p<.03) higher on aggression than did the Moderate Republicans (Mean 11.81; SE .51), the Conservative Democrats (Mean 8.70; SE .92, p<.0001), the Liberal Democrats (Mean 8.31 SE.81, p< .0001), the Libertarians (Mean 8.29 SE 1.10, p<.02) and those proclaiming no political affiliation (Mean 10.65 SE .57, p<.0007). Conservative Republicans (Mean 11.87; SE .80) scored significantly (p<.02) lower on RWAS conventionalism than did the Moderate Republicans (Mean 14.28; SE .69), the Conservative Democrats (Mean 16.60; SE 1.23, p<.002), the Liberal Democrats (Mean 18.08 SE 1.08, p< .0001), the Libertarians (Mean 15.86 SE 1.48, p<.02) and those proclaiming no political affiliation (Mean 16.93 SE .77, p<.0001). Conservative Republicans (Mean 27.00 SD .72) were significantly more Submissive (p<.01) higher than the Moderate Republicans (Mean 19.59 SD .62, p<.01), the Conservative Democrats (Mean 15.59 SD 1.11, p<.0001), the Liberal Democrats (Mean 27.00 SD .72, p , .0001), the Libertarians (Mean 27.00 SD .72, p <.0001), and those proclaiming no political affiliation (Mean 27.00 SD .72, p<.001). Significant differences were found for the NEO-PI Big-Five Openness scale {F (5,106) = 3.52, p<.006)} with the Conservative Republicans (Mean 37.17; SE 1.32) scoring significantly lower (p<.02) on Openness then did the Liberal Democrats (Mean 42.31; SE 1.80); the Libertarians (p<.03) (Mean 43.29; SE 2.45) and those proclaiming no political affiliation (Mean 46.61; SE 1.27) (p<.0001). Moderate Republicans (Mean 38.56 SE 1.14) were significantly lower (p<.004) than those having no political affiliation (Mean 46.61; SE 1.27). These analyses demonstrated there was a significant interaction between the three RWA scales, the openness scale of the B-F and political preference/affiliation. These findings enhance our understandings of young voters and may ultimately contribute to better participation on their part in the political process.
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Political affiliation, personality predictors, mood predictors, political preference