Date Awarded

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.Sc.)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Xiaowen Xu

Committee Member

Joanna Rene Schug

Committee Member

Adrian Jorge Bravo

Abstract

Big Five personality traits have been shown to be one important psychological process that underlie differences in political orientation. An abundance of work has found that political conservatism is consistently predicted by trait Conscientiousness, whereas political liberalism is consistently predicted by Openness to Experience. Other work found that political behaviors may be related to regional differences in personality. The present study extended existing work by examining the numbers and features of distinct personality profiles within Republican, Democratic, and swing regions of the United States. To do so, we conducted latent profile analysis (LPA) to determine different personality profiles within different political regions of the US. Across two different datasets with a total sample size of over 6 000, our results revealed that while all regions shared similar numbers (3-5 profiles per region) and patterns of personality profiles (e.g., well-adapted and maladapted individuals), regions that are lean more toward either Democratic or Republican partisanship also showed unique personality profile patterns (e.g., “Disorganized & Reclusive”, “Rigid & Antisocial”). Overall, these results provide initial evidence suggesting that different personality profiles do exist among different political regions of the US, and offer insights on the interplay between trait personality, political orientation, and geographical differences.

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-142d-5v92

Rights

© The Author

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