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Personality and EU Attitudes: Relationships across EU Attitude Dimensions
Bert N. Bakker – University of Amsterdam
Claes H. de Vreese – University of Amsterdam
Abstract
We still do not fully understand why attitudes towards the European Union (EU) differ
among citizens. In this study, we turn to the Big Five personality traits Openness,
Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism as antecedents of EU
attitudes. Based on a national survey, we focus on attitudes towards widening and
deepening of the EU, trust in EU institutions, identification with the EU, and negative affect
experienced towards the EU. The nature of the EU attitude is expected to condition the
strength and direction of the association of a particular EU attitude with a personality trait.
The Big Five traits are indeed predictors of some but not all EU attitudes and will shape how
citizens’ respond to changes in the institutional set-up of the EU.
Key words: EU attitudes, Personality, Big Five
Citizens differ profoundly in their attitudes towards the European Union (EU) which
influence vote choice in elections for the European parliament (de Vries and Tillman, 2011;
van Spanje and de Vreese, 2011), EU referendums (Hobolt and Brouard, 2010; Hobolt, 2005;
Schuck and de Vreese, 2008), and national elections (de Vries, 2007; de Vries et al., 2011;
Tillman, 2004). Extant research has documented that socio-economic status, political
sophistication, and evaluations of the government as well as the economy are antecedents
of EU attitudes (Franklin et al., 1994; Gabel, 1998; Ray, 2003; Tillman, 2012). Likewise, anti-
immigrant attitudes, political ideology and national identity are predictors of EU attitudes
(Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Carey, 2002; Harteveld et al., 2013; Hobolt, 2014; Kritzinger,
2003). Yet, we still do not fully understand why attitudes towards the EU differ among
citizens.
Recent research re-emphasizes that personality is an important antecedent of political
attitudes (Gerber et al., 2011; Jost et al., 2003; Mondak and Halperin, 2008). A commonly
employed model of personality is the Big Five model of personality which isolates the traits
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism (Digman, 1990;
Goldberg, 1992; McCrae and Costa, 1987). Big Five traits shape political attitudes when the
attitude involves specific goals and values that relate to one or more Big Five traits (Gerber
et al., 2010; Jost et al., 2009; Mondak, 2010). In the only study up to this point, Schoen
(2007) showed that support for further integration of the EU is associated with high levels of
Openness and Agreeableness but low levels of Conscientiousness.
The literature on EU attitudes has, however, demonstrated that EU integration is only
one of multiple EU attitudes (Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Hobolt and Brouard, 2010). For
instance, attitudes towards EU integration can be divided into (1) support for the widening
of the EU by enlarging the number of member states and (2) support for the deepening of
the EU by further integrating existing policies (Hobolt, 2014; Karp and Bowler, 2006). Others
have isolated trust in EU institutions (Harteveld et al., 2013; Lubbers, 2008), identification
with the EU (Bruter, 2003; Hobolt and Brouard, 2010; Lubbers, 2008), and negative affect
towards the EU (Boomgaarden et al., 2011) as EU attitudes.
We theorize that the nature of the EU attitude conditions the strength and direction of
the association with the Big Five traits. In a national survey conducted in the Netherlands,
we confirm that the EU attitude conditions the strength and direction of the association with
Big Five traits. For instance, we demonstrate that the Big Five trait Openness is positively
associated with the support for widening of the EU, but this trait is unrelated to deepening
of the EU. The effects of the Big Five traits on EU attitudes are independent of commonly
identified antecedents of EU attitudes such as government evaluation, economic outlook,
national identity and anti-immigrant attitudes. In doing so, we push the research on
personality and EU attitudes an important step further.
The contribution of this study is twofold. First, by establishing the direct associations
between the Big Five traits and EU attitudes, we demonstrate that personality is an
important antecedent of EU attitudes. This implies that scholars of EU attitudes should
consider personality as an antecedent of EU attitudes. Second, this study has isolated a set
of personality characteristics which should interact with the environment in shaping citizens’
attitudes towards the EU. For instance, our findings suggest that the open-minded,
agreeable, and neurotic citizens will respond positively to the widening of the EU by
including new countries. Acknowledging that the personality of citizens differs, politicians,
policy makers and the news media could tailor their messages to the motives and needs
rooted in the specific Big Five traits in order to inform the public and increase the legitimacy
of the EU.
Big Five Personality Traits and Political Attitudes
A rich body of research has studied the association between citizens’ personality and
political attitudes (see for a reviews, Carney et al., 2008; Jost et al., 2003). We turn to a
commonly used categorization of psychological dispositions: the Big Five model of
personality. The Big Five model of personality encapsulates a wide variety of individual
differences in the traits Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and
Neuroticism (Digman, 1990; Goldberg, 1992). Specifically, people open to experience have a
lively imagination, are curious and open-minded and have few behavioral inhibitions.
Conscientious persons prefer order, adhere to social norms, plan and organize tasks, control
impulses, are goal-oriented and are reluctant to change. Extraverts seek excitement, are
outgoing and social. Agreeable citizens are tender-minded, trusting, altruistic and caring.
Lastly, neurotic persons are self-conscious and have a tendency to experience negative
affect such as anger, anxiety and depression.
Personality traits are core characteristics that share a set of attributes which make it
possible to assume that they shape attitudes and behaviors (Asendorpf and Aken, 2003).
Specifically, Big Five traits are heritable (Yamagata et al., 2006), develop in early childhood
(Edmonds et al., 2013), are robust across cultures (McCrae and Terracciano, 2005) and are
stable over time (Cobb-Clark and Schurer, 2012). Accordingly, Big Five traits can be seen as
“stable individual level differences in people’s motivational reactions to circumscribed
classes of environmental stimuli” (Denissen and Penke, 2008: 1286). The attitudes and
behaviors that are influenced by personality traits, so called surface characteristics, are more
amendable to cultural and social influences and less stable than personality traits (Asendorpf
and Denissen, 2006). Surface characteristics are likely to develop over time as the product of
the interaction between core characteristics and experiences from the environment
(McCrae, 2009). Building upon the aforementioned characteristics, the Big Five traits have
been used to explain individual differences in a wide range of surface characteristics such as
health behavior (Ozer and Benet-Martínez, 2006), and academic achievement (Paunonen
and Ashton, 2001).
Political attitudes are a typical example of surface characteristics (McCrae and Costa,
2008). In the domain of politics, Big Five traits are likely to shape attitudes when the issue
involves specific goals and values that relate to these traits (Jost et al., 2009; Mondak, 2010;
Schoen, 2007). For instance, Big Five traits have shown to be antecedents of attitudes
towards immigrants (Freitag and Rapp, 2015), punishment of criminals (Kandola and Egan,
2014) and moral issues (Gerber et al., 2010; Mondak, 2010). Importantly, the strength and
direction of the associations between personality traits, such as the Big Five traits, and
political attitudes is conditional upon the attitudes of interest (Carney et al., 2008; Feldman
and Johnston, 2014; Van Hiel and Mervielde, 2004). For instance, the Big Five trait
Neuroticism is positively associated with left-wing economic attitudes as these would
accommodate the fear and anxiety experienced by market risks (Gerber et al., 2010), but the
trait is generally unrelated to attitudes towards immigrants and moral issues (Freitag and
Rapp, 2015; Kandola and Egan, 2014; Mondak, 2010). The strength and the direction of the
association between the Big Five trait and the EU attitudes seem to be conditioned by the
nature of the political attitude.
Big Five Personality Traits and EU Attitudes
The association between personality traits and support for integration of the EU was
addressed by Schoen (2007). Specifically, Schoen (2007) demonstrated that the high scorers
on Openness and Agreeableness are supportive of further integration of the EU and the
introduction of the Euro. Moreover, Conscientiousness was associated with opposition to EU
integration. The study by Schoen (2007) illustrates that Big Five traits are important
antecedent of attitudes towards EU integration.1 Support for EU integration itself is,
however, only one of multiple EU attitudes (Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Easton, 1975; Hobolt
and Brouard, 2010; Hobolt, 2014). We theorize that different Big Five traits are antecedents
of different EU attitudes. In this study we focus upon attitudes towards (1) widening of the
EU, (2) deepening of the EU, (3) trust in EU institutions, (4) identification with the EU, and (5)
negative affect towards the EU. Importantly, formulating our expectations we have observed
three different patterns. First, there are associations between Big Five traits and EU attitudes
which, supported by earlier research, lead to strong directional expectations. An illustrative
example is the expected positive association between Openness and the widening of the EU.
Second, some expectations are not necessarily fuelled by earlier research but can be inferred
from research outside the domain of politics. The expected positive association between
Neuroticism and the experience of negative affect towards the EU fits within this category.
Third, some expectations are necessarily more explorative due to competing insights based
upon earlier literature or the paucity of extant research. For instance, the association
between Extraversion and most EU attitude dimensions falls within this category. In the
1 In a recent study, Tillman (2013: 573) demonstrated that high scorers on authoritarianism
tend to experience more “fears about the building of the European Union”. Authoritarianism
is, however, a construct associated with low levels of Openness and Agreeableness (Sibley
and Duckitt, 2008). This further supports the finding that high scorers on Openness and
Agreeableness support the integration of the EU.
remainder of this section, we develop an argument for the expected relationships between
the Big Five traits and the five EU attitudes.
Deepening and Widening
We start with the association between Big Five traits and attitudes towards the integration
of the EU. Attitudes towards EU integration can be divided into attitudes towards widening
of the EU and attitudes towards deepening of the EU (Hobolt, 2014; Karp and Bowler, 2006).
Widening of the EU taps into the attitudes towards new member states in general or
admission of specific countries such as Turkey (de Vreese et al., 2008; Hobolt, 2014; Karp
and Bowler, 2006). Attitudes towards the deepening of the EU tap into further integrating
the common policies of the EU such as the implementation of a common currency and the
integration in a common foreign policy (Hobolt, 2014; Karp and Bowler, 2006). We argue
that Big Five traits are differentially associated attitudes towards widening and deepening of
the EU. In doing so, we expand the work by Schoen (2007) who treated support for EU
integration as a uni-dimensional construct.
The drive for new experiences, imaginativeness, and tolerance rooted in Openness make
persons high on Openness more likely to support the widening of the EU. The
imaginativeness make the open-minded more likely to consider alternatives (Petersen and
Aarøe, 2013). The tolerance rooted in Openness leads to positive attitudes towards out-
group members (Freitag and Rapp, 2015). Lastly, the drive for new activities makes high
scorers on Openness the most likely to migrate to another country (Canache et al., 2013). In
sum, we expect that the open-mindedness, curiosity, imaginativeness, and tolerance rooted
in Openness leads to a positive association of this trait with attitudes towards the widening
of the EU. Importantly, we do not think that the further integration of, complex, EU policies
will resonate with the motives rooted in Openness. Therefore, we do not expect that
Openness is associated with the support for the deepening of the EU.
Conscientious persons prefer order, adhere to social norms, plan and organize tasks,
control impulses, are goal-oriented, and are reluctant to change. On the one hand, we could
expect that conscientious persons oppose the widening and deepening of the EU as they are
reluctant to change and prefer the status quo (Schoen, 2007). However, conscientious
persons are also dutiful and strive for achievement (Costa et al., 1991). Accordingly, they
could also support the widening and deepening of the EU as this is the appropriate mean to
achieve such goals. Given these competing insights, we do not formulate directional
expectations regarding the associations between Conscientiousness and deepening and
widening of the EU.
The widening of the EU is expected to resonate with the trusting, caring and tender-
minded motives rooted in Agreeableness. Therefore, we expect that Agreeableness is
positively associated with support for widening of the EU. We do not expect to find an
association between Agreeableness and the deepening of the EU as the development of
these, mostly abstract, EU policies does not resonate with the motives rooted in
Agreeableness.
Neurotic persons tend to adopt political attitudes which accommodate the experienced
negative affect. For instance, neurotic persons support economic policies such as income
redistribution because these policies accommodate the market risks (Gerber et al., 2010).
Widening as well as deepening of the EU would accommodate the experienced fear caused
by, for instance, globalization. Therefore, we expect to find positive associations between
Neuroticism and both widening and deepening of the EU.
Lastly, the association between Extraversion and political attitudes is generally not well
understood (Gerber et al., 2010; Sibley et al., 2012). Therefore, we will not formulate
directional expectations.
Trust in EU institutions
Next, we discuss the association between Big Five traits and trust in the EU institutions
(Harteveld et al., 2013; Lubbers, 2008). Highly agreeable citizens are trusting, altruistic,
tender-minded, and value cooperation. Agreeable persons trust the political establishment
(Mondak and Halperin, 2008) and support parties that are part of the political establishment
(Bakker, Rooduijn, et al., 2015). Therefore, we expect to find a positive association between
Agreeableness and trust in EU institutions.
Trust in institution does not directly resonate with the motives and needs rooted in the
traits Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Neuroticism. For instance, Neuroticism
taps into the tendency to experience negative affect, self-consciousness and insecurity. We
do not expect that these motives resonate with Trust in EU institutions. Similar arguments
can be made for the other three Big Five traits. Therefore, we do not expect that the trust in
EU institutions will resonate with any of the other Big Five traits.
European Identity
Next, we turn to the identification with the EU. Open-minded citizens are less likely to
commit themselves to organizations such as political parties (Bakker, Hopmann, et al., 2015;
Bakker, Klemmensen, et al., 2015). Moreover, Openness is unrelated to the identification
with the nation (Duckitt and Sibley, 2014; Sagiv et al., 2012). Consequently, we do not expect
an association between Openness and the identification with the EU.
Conscientiousness is associated with a preference for structure and order. The
identification with groups, such as the EU, could accommodate this preference for order and
structure. However, the association of Conscientiousness with national identification is
inconsistent (Duckitt and Sibley, 2014; Sagiv et al., 2012). Accordingly, it is an open-ended
question whether conscientious citizens also identity with the EU.
Agreeable citizens might identify with in-groups as they are attracted by the ”communal
and cooperative components” of group identification (Gerber et al., 2012: 661). Indeed,
agreeable citizens tend to identify with the nation (Duckitt and Sibley, 2014; Sagiv et al.,
2012). The identification with the nation could imply that agreeable citizens have low levels
of identification with the EU (Carey, 2002). However, the strong national identity of
agreeable citizens does not exclude the formation of a strong EU identity (Boomgaarden et
al., 2011; Hooghe and Marks, 2005). Therefore, we do not formulate a directional
hypothesis.
Turning to Neuroticism, recent research observed a negative association between
Neuroticism and national identification (Duckitt and Sibley, 2014; Sagiv et al., 2012). This is
explained by stressing that identification with an in-group could foster emotional stability,
which leads to a negative association between Neuroticism and in-group identification.
However, identification with the in-group could also reduce the negative affect experienced
by neurotic persons. If this is the case, then we should expect to find a positive association
between Neuroticism and EU identity. Given these competing expectations, we do not
formulate a directional expectation.
Lastly, Extraverts commit themselves to organizations (Erdheim et al., 2006) such as
political parties (Bakker, Hopmann, et al., 2015; Bakker, Klemmensen, et al., 2015; Gerber et
al., 2012) because the group membership provides them the opportunity to interact with
other people. However, identification with a nation, or supra-national entity, does not offer
the same social benefits as group identification. Accordingly, Extraversion was unrelated to
national identification (Duckitt and Sibley, 2014; Sagiv et al., 2012). Following this line of
reasoning, we do not expect that Extraversion is associated with the EU identification.
Negative Affect
Emotions receive increasing attention in the study of political behavior (Druckman and
McDermott, 2008; Garry, 2013). Boomgaarden and colleagues (2011) demonstrated that the
negative affect towards the EU make-up a distinct EU attitude dimension. Neurotic citizens
are prone to experience negative affect such as fear and anxiety. Consequently, we expect
that neurotic persons experience negative affect towards the EU. Neuroticism is the only Big
Five trait which clearly captures the tendency to experience negative affect. The other traits
are not expected to be associated with the affect experienced towards the EU.
To summarize, the nature of the EU attitude dimension conditions the expected
association with the Big Five traits. Specifically, we expect that support for widening of the
EU is associated with high levels of Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
Support for deepening of the EU is expected to be related with high levels of Extraversion
and Neuroticism. Agreeableness is the only trait expected to be positively associated with
the trust in EU institutions. We do not expect any associations between personality traits
and identification with the EU. Lastly, Neuroticism is expected to be positively associated
with the negative affect experienced towards the EU. Table 1, provides a schematic overview
of our expectations.
[Insert Table 1 – around here]
Methods
To test our hypotheses we use original data from an elaborate survey conducted in the
context of the 2014 European Parliament election (Authors, 2014). The fieldwork was
conducted by the survey company TNS NIPO. The sample was drawn from a 240,000 person
database which is representative of the Dutch adult population. High-speed internet
penetration in the Netherlands is extraordinarily high enabling a high quality sample. In the
first wave 2,803 respondents were invited to participate in the study. The study was fielded
between December 13 and December 26, 2013. In total, 2,189 panelists responded to the
survey which equals a 78.1 percent response rate. The fifth wave consisted of panelists that
were re-contacted after they had completed the fourth wave of the survey. The fifth wave
was fielded between June 20 and June 26 2014. In total, 1,379 respondents were contacted
and 1,174 responded which equals an 85.1 percent re-contact rate.
The attitudinal variables of interest in this study were measured in the first wave of the
survey. The Big Five personality traits were measured in the fifth wave of the survey. This is
not a problem as personality traits are stable in adulthood (Cobb-Clark and Schurer, 2012)
and over short time-periods (Gerber, Huber, Doherty and Dowling, 2013). Moreover, Bloeser
and colleagues (2013) demonstrated that the Big Five traits are robustly associated with
political attitudes. Therefore, we believe that have obtained reliable estimates of the
association between personality traits and different EU attitude dimensions. Accordingly, we
rely upon the 1,174 respondents that completed the survey in the first and fifth wave.
In this study we focus upon 14 items that tap into attitudes towards (1) widening of the
EU, (2) deepening of the EU, (3) trust in EU institutions, (4) identification with the EU, and (5)
negative affect towards the EU. Here, we briefly discuss the measurement of each attitude.
Table 2 (second column) provides the wording of the 14 items used to measure the different
attitudes. Note that the items included in this survey were all scored on scales ranging from
1 to 7.
The widening of the EU was measured using three items asking respondents to indicated
to what extent they agree with inclusion of specific countries into the EU (Hobolt and
Brouard, 2010; Karp and Bowler, 2006). In this study we focus upon Turkey, Montenegro and
Iceland. Deepening of the EU was measured by asking to what extent citizens support the
further integration of the EU by asking about their attitudes towards integration in general
(Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Lubbers, 2008).
Trust in EU institutions was measured using two items tapping into support for European
institutions (Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Gabel, 1998; Harteveld et al., 2013). Specifically, we
focus upon trust in the European Commission and the European Parliament (Lubbers, 2008;
Weßels, 2007). European identity was measured using three items. One item taps into the
extent to which respondents are proud to be a European (Karp and Bowler, 2006; Lubbers,
2008). The second item asks respondents about the extent to which they feel connected to
the EU, while the third item taps into feelings towards European symbols such as the flag
(Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Bruter, 2003). Negative affect toward the EU was measured
using four items tapping into fear, threat, anger and disgust. This is grossly in line with
Boomgaarden and colleagues (2011) who demonstrated these four items group into one
dimension measuring negative affect towards the EU.
Using a confirmatory factor analysis, we confirmed that there are five distinct EU
attitudes (see Table 2). Having confirmed the factor structure of our EU attitudes, we
created five additive scales, one for each EU attitude that we all scored on a scale from the
lowest observed value (0) through the highest observed value on the scale (1). Table 3
provides the descriptive statistics of the five attitude dimensions.2
[Insert Table 2 – around here]
The Big Five traits were measured using the 20-item Mini-International Personality Item Pool
(Mini-IPIP; Donnellan et al., 2006). The Mini-IPIP is a reliable and valid inventory of the Big
Five traits (Baldasaro et al., 2013; Cooper et al., 2010; Donnellan et al., 2006). The inventory
operationalizes each Big Five trait using four items per trait. Participants were asked to
respond to items such as “I get easily upset” which taps into Neuroticism (see
Supplementary Material A for the item wording of all Mini-IPIP items). Each item was scored
on a seven-point Likert-scale (1 = very inaccurate; 7 = very accurate). We have confirmed the
factor structure of the Mini-IPIP (Supplementary Material B). Moreover, the internal
reliabilities of the five personality dimensions were acceptable (see Table 3).
To summarize, the dataset employed in this study has three advantages compared to
existing datasets. First, our sample is among the first studies to include an extensive battery
of EU attitude dimensions (Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Hobolt and Brouard, 2010). Second,
we use a valid and reliable personality inventory that relied upon 4 items per trait. The use
of a larger personality inventory has clear advantage that we decrease the risk to
underestimate and overestimate of the influence of personality on political attitudes (Credé
et al., 2012). Third, our dataset is unique because it combines the multidimensional
2 Supplementary Material C, Table C.2, provides the correlations between the dependent
variables and the independent variables.
operationalization of EU attitudes with a personality inventory which is, to our best
knowledge, not possible using existing datasets.
[Insert Table 3 – around here]
In order to isolate the effect of personality on EU attitudes, we estimate conservative OLS
regression models in which we control for a set of control variables that have been used as
predictors of EU attitudes. First, we control for indicators of socio-economic status that have
been used as predictors of EU attitudes, namely gender, age, education and income (Gabel
and Palmer, 1995; Gabel, 1998; Hakhverdian et al., 2013; Lubbers and Jaspers, 2011).
Second, we control for a set of political motivational control variables, namely government
approval (Anderson, 1998; Franklin et al., 1994), economic outlook (Anderson and Reichert,
1996; Gabel and Whitten, 1997), political interest and political knowledge (Boomgaarden et
al., 2011; Gabel, 1998; Tillman, 2012), national identity (Harteveld et al., 2013; Kritzinger,
2003) and anti-immigrant attitudes (de Vreese et al., 2008; McLaren, 2002).3 Note that in
order to assess the substantive effects of the personality traits on EU attitudes, we calculate
the predicted EU attitude among respondents that score two standard deviations below the
mean on the personality trait and respondent that score two standard deviations above the
mean on the personality trait keeping the control variables at their central tendencies.
3 The item wordings and descriptive statistics of these variables are provided in
Supplementary Material C.
Results
Table 4 provides the results for our analyses in five columns, one model for each association
between EU attitudes and personality. We start with attitudes towards widening the EU (see
Table 4, column 1) which was scored from opposition to the widening of the EU (0) through
support for widening of the EU (1). In line with our expectations, Openness is positively
associated with support for widening the EU. Specifically, respondents that score high on
Openness (e.g., two standard deviations above the mean) tend to be more supportive of
widening the EU (0.43 [95%CI = 0.39, 0.46]) compared to respondents that score low (e.g.,
two standard deviations below the mean) on Openness (0.32 [95%CI = 0.29, 0.36]) while
keeping all other variables at their central tendencies. Also in line with our expectations,
respondents that score high on Agreeableness tend to be more supportive of widening the
EU (0.41 [95%CI = 0.38, 0.44]) compared to respondents that score low on Agreeableness
(0.33 [95%CI = 0.30, 0.37]). Likewise, we observe that the highly neurotic respondents are
more supportive of widening the EU (0.42 [95%CI = 0.39, 0.45]) compared to low neurotic
respondents (0.34 [95%CI = 0.31, 0.36]). Conscientiousness is indeed unrelated to attitudes
towards widening the EU. Unexpectedly we find that high scorers on Extraversion are less
supportive of widening of the EU (0.34 [95%CI = 0.31, 0.37]) compared to respondents that
score low on Extraversion (0.41 [95%CI = 0.38, 0.44]). We discuss the implication of this
unexpected finding in the conclusion.4
4 One might wonder whether the personality correlates of attitudes towards the admission
of Iceland differ from the admission of Turkey and/or Montenegro. We tested this and show
in Supplmentary Material D that there is no meaningful distinction between Iceland on the
one hand and Turkey and Montenegro on the other hand.
The effects of the Big Five traits on the attitudes towards widening of the EU are
substantive. To illustrate this, we compare the reported effects of the Big Five traits with the
effects of government approval on support for widening the EU. Respondents that have a
positive evaluation of the government (e.g., score two standard deviations above the mean
on governmental approval) tend to be more supportive of widening of the EU (0.43 [95%CI =
0.41, 0.45]) compared to respondents that score two standard deviations below the mean
on governmental approval and evaluate the government negatively (0.31 [95%C I= 0.29,
0.34]). We thereby demonstrate that effects of the Big Five traits on attitudes towards
widening of the EU are comparable to the effect of governmental approval on attitudes
towards widening of the EU.
Turning to the deepening of the EU, we observe a different pattern (Table 4, column 2).
The deepening of the EU was scored on a scale ranging from opposition to deepening of the
EU (0) through support for deepening of the EU (1). In line with our expectations,
Neuroticism is positively associated with the support for deepening the EU. Specifically, high
neurotic persons are more supportive of the deepening of the EU (0.29 [95%CI = 0.26, 0.32])
more compared with low neurotic respondents (0.22 [95%CI = 0.19, 0.24]). As expected,
Openness and Extraversion were unrelated to attitudes towards deepening the EU. We did
not formulate a directional hypothesis for Conscientiousness. Here, we observe that
Conscientiousness is positively associated with support for deepening the EU. Specifically,
we observe that conscientious respondents were more supportive of deepening the EU (0.29
[95%CI = 0.26, 0.31]) compared with low conscientiousness respondents (0.22 [95%CI = 0.19,
0.25]). This suggests that conscientious persons see the EU as a way to achieve their goals.
The effects of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness on attitudes towards deepening of the
EU are modest compared with the effect of government approval on deepening of the EU.
Specifically, a very positive approval of the government leads to more support for deepening
of the EU (0.31 [95%CI = 0.29, 0.33]) compared with a very negative evaluation of the
government (0.19 [95%CI = 0.17, 0.21]). Do note that we also find a negative effect of
Agreeableness on attitudes towards deepening of the EU, which is somewhat larger
compared with the effect of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness.
Trust in the EU was scored to range from low trust (0) to high trust (1). Contrary to our
expectations, trust in EU institutions was not associated with Agreeableness (Table 4,
column 3). Instead, we observe that the conscientious citizens tend to be somewhat more
trusting of EU institutions, compared with low conscientious citizens. We discuss the
implications of this unexpected finding in our conclusion.
Next, we turn to the association between the Big Five traits and identification with the
EU. This scale was scored to range from low identification with the EU (0) through high
identification with the EU (1). In line with our expectations we do find any associations
between the Big Five traits and identification with the EU (Table 2, column 4).
Lastly, we turn to the association between the Big Five traits and the experience of
negative affect towards the EU. High scorers indicate that people experience negative affect,
whereas low scores signals that respondents agree that the EU. As expected, we observe
that the neurotic respondents experience more negative affect (0.41 [95%CI = 0.38, 0.44)
compared to the emotionally stable respondents (0.36 [95%CI = 0.34, 0.38). The effect of
Neuroticism is smaller compared with covariates such as governmental approval. For
instance, positive government approval is associated with the experience of less negative
affect (0.46 [95%CI = 0.43, 0.48) compared with a negative government approval
(0.31[95%CI = 0.29, 0.34).
[Insert Table 4 – around here]
In sum, we find evidence that the Big Five traits are antecedents of some but not all EU
attitudes. Next, we will briefly discuss the control variables included in this study. First,
governmental approval is associated with support for widening and deepening of the EU, the
trust in EU institutions, and the identification with the EU. Moreover, governmental approval
is negatively associated with the experience of negative affect. This pattern is grossly
mirrored with regard to the economic outlook. Next, the effects of political interest and
knowledge on EU attitudes are modest and less consistent (see also, Boomgaarden et al.,
2011). Lastly, negative attitudes towards immigrants are consistently negatively associated
with the different EU attitudes.
One might put forward that personality traits influence EU attitudes via their effect on
the political motivational variables (Mondak, 2010: 5). We have assessed the possibility of
these indirect associations between personality traits and EU attitudes using a structural
equation model. In Supplementary Material E, we demonstrate that personality only directly
influences EU attitudes and that the effects are not mediated or suppressed by the control
variables. This additional analysis suggests that there is a direct resonance between the Big
Five traits and some of the EU attitudes.5
5 We have also explored the interaction between personality traits and political
sophistication, political interest and education because we could expect that the association
between personality and EU attitudes is stronger among the more sophisticated citizens
(Jost et al., 2009). Evidence is mixt and further research is warranted. We present the results
in Supplementary Material F.
Discussion
In this study we have established that Big Five personality traits are antecedents of a diverse
set of EU attitudes. The widening of the EU is associated with high levels of Openness,
Agreeableness and Neuroticism and low levels of Extraversion. Deepening of the EU is
positively associated with Neuroticism as well as Conscientiousness. Trust in EU institutions
is positively associated with Conscientiousness, whereas we expected Agreeableness to be
an antecedent of this trait. The identification with the EU is unrelated to EU attitudes. Lastly,
the experience of negative affect towards the EU is associated with high levels of
Neuroticism. These results demonstrate that the nature of the EU attitude conditions the
strength and direction of the association with one or more Big Five Traits. We have
compared the effects of the Big Five traits with the established antecedents of EU attitudes
such as governmental performance. The effects of the personality traits on EU attitudes are
smaller compared to this antecedent. Yet, this might not be surprising as this, and other
antecedents of the EU attitudes, such as economic outlook, immigrant attitudes, national
identity, are conceptually closer related to the EU attitudes.
We observed some unexpected associations for the trait Agreeableness. The absence of
the expected association between Agreeableness and trust in EU institutions could be driven
by at least two alternative explanations. First, this could suggest the trust, tender-
mindedness and altruism do not resonate with the trust in EU institutions. While
Agreeableness was related to trust in national politicians (Mondak and Halperin, 2008), it
could be that the trust in supranational level institutions is too distant or abstract. Our null-
finding could also be driven by the operationalization of the dependent or independent
variable. The dependent variable is operationalized in line with earlier research (Harteveld et
al., 2013; Lubbers, 2008) which makes it unlikely to underlie the null finding. Personality
traits were measured using the 20-item Mini-IPIP which is a reliable and valid instrument of
the Big Five traits which has been successfully employed in the study of political attitudes
(Osborne and Sibley, 2013). Perhaps, future research could include even larger personality
inventories and explore possible associations at the lower order facet level (Hirsh et al.,
2010; Osborne et al., 2013). Future research will have to further explore the association
between Agreeableness and the trust in EU institutions. Similarly, the unexpected positive
association between Conscientiousness and trust in the EU needs to be replicated before
conclusions can be drawn.
In this study we build upon the commonly made assumption that personality traits shape
attitudes towards the EU. Yet, some studies question the extent to which personality traits
(chore characteristics) shape political attitudes (surface characteristics). First, political
attitudes are also relatively stable over time (Ansolabehere et al., 2008). Second, political
attitudes also develop before adulthood (Hatemi et al., 2009). Third, studies that rely upon
twin research methodology (Medland and Hatemi, 2009), find that personality traits and
political attitudes are correlated but point out that the influence of genes on political
attitudes is only to a limited extent mediated by personality traits (Funk et al., 2013; Verhulst
et al., 2010). These insights raise awareness that there are alternative explanations that not
necessarily support the dominant assertion that personality traits shape political attitudes.
Importantly, at this point further research is necessary to address the nature of the
relationship between personality and political attitudes (see also, Feldman, 2013; Kandler et
al., 2014).
This study opens up for three agenda’s for further research. First, future research should
assess the association between personality and EU attitudes across political contexts.
Generally speaking, personality traits are distributed similarly across, western, countries
(Schmitt et al., 2007). However, the behavioral manifestations of personality traits could
differ across different political contexts (McAdams and Pals 2006). For instance, Tolbert and
Redlawsk (2012) demonstrated that Openness is only a predictor of gay rights in the US in
states that have conservative laws, while Openness is not associated with attitudes towards
gays in states with liberal laws towards gays. Comparative research should therefore
theorize and assess how the associations Big Five traits and EU attitudes are moderated by
the political context. The effects of Openness on attitudes towards widening of the EU might
only be present among current member states but not among candidate member states.
These and other hypotheses could be explored in future research.6
Second, the EU is an ongoing project which has been marked by large changes in the
institutional set-up which severely influence the attitudes of citizens towards the EU
(Hakhverdian et al., 2013; Semetko et al., 2003). Future research, relying upon longitudinal
datasets, could explore if and to what extent personality traits shape the response to
changes in the institutional set-up of the EU. Personality traits are expected to condition
how citizens respond to important changes in the EU such as the acceptance of austerity
measures (Bechtel et al., 2014), the admission of new member states (de Vreese et al.,
2008), and the deepening of the EU (Hakhverdian et al., 2013).
6 There are some existing datasets that could be utilized in this regard. Yet, these studies are
not without limitations when it comes to the measures of EU attitudes and the
operationalization of personality. Some samples only contain measures of some but not all
traits (i.e., European Social Survey), while others contain measures of the Big Five but only a
limited number of EU attitudes (i.e. World Values Surveys and different household panels).
Third, personality traits should interact with the political environment in shaping EU
attitudes. Page and Shapiro (1992) argued that the media are likely to shape perceptions of
international and foreign policy issues. When it comes to EU attitudes, Schuck and De Vreese
(2006), for instance, demonstrated that a frame which stresses the risk associated with
further EU integration make citizens less likely to support EU integration. Zaller (1992: 23),
noted that personality shapes how citizens respond to situational stimuli. Recent research
suggests that citizens are especially influenced by situational stimuli such as campaign adds
or frames when the content of the stimuli resonates with the motives and needs rooted in a
personality trait (Dinesen et al., 2014; Gerber, Huber, Doherty, Dowling, et al., 2013; Hirsh et
al., 2012). Future research could address whether personality traits interact with the media
in shaping EU attitudes.
To conclude, this study offers two clear implications for the study of the public opinion
towards the EU. First, scholars interested in understanding public opinion towards the EU
should take Big Five personality traits into account in order to get a complete understanding
of why persons differ in their attitudes towards the EU. However, the multidimensional
nature of EU attitudes makes that personality traits are more relevant for some than for
other traits. For instance, scholars interested in attitudes towards widening of the EU should
take the Big Five traits into account, whereas most Big Five traits are unrelated to the
identification with the EU.
Second, the results of our study imply that personality traits will condition how persons
respond to changes in the institutional set-up of the EU. Media increasingly pay attention to
the EU (Gattermann and Vasilopoulou, 2015; Koopmans, 2007). Accordingly, personality
traits will condition the effects of the media on EU attitudes. For instance, the open-minded,
agreeable and neurotic will respond welcoming to the admission of new countries to the EU.
Likewise, extraverts will respond positively to the increase in the use of symbols which stress
the identity of the EU. In the short run this insight will hopefully raise awareness among
politicians, policy makers, the news media and European citizens that profound
psychological differences underlie the roots of political conflict. In the long run, politicians,
policy makers, and the news media could utilize the knowledge that personality underlies EU
attitudes in order to tailor their communication more effectively to the motives rooted in
personality traits.
Tailoring information to the personality traits of voters could have positive as well as
negative consequences for the democratic legitimacy of the EU. On the one hand, elites can
better inform citizens about the upcoming changes in the institutional set-up of the EU. The
positive consequence of an informed public is that this will increase the democratic
legitimacy of the EU (Trenz, 2008). On the other hand, the increased tailoring of information
to the personality traits of citizens could have negative consequences for the legitimacy of
the EU. The shared information environment will become smaller and voters will be less
exposed to information that challenges their beliefs. As a consequence attitudes towards the
EU could polarize (Stroud, 2010; Taber and Lodge, 2006). We believe that, eventually,
research addressing the association between personality and EU attitudes could play a key
role in the discussion of the democratic legitimacy of the EU. Our study just marks a starting
point.
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Table 1 Overview of the Direct Associations between Personality Traits and EU attitudes Widening Deepening Trust Identity Negative Affect
Openness + Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness + + Neuroticism + + +
A blank space indicates that we expect no association between a specific EU attitude dimension and a Big Five trait. (+) signals a positive association between the trait and the EU attitude dimension. (-) signals a negative association between the trait and the EU attitude dimension.
Table 2 Item Wording and Confirmatory Factor Analysis results for the Five EU Attitude Dimensions # Item wording Widening Deepening Trust Identity Negative Affect
1 Admission of Turkey7 0.71 2 Admission of Iceland7 0.57 3 Admission of Montenegro7 0.88 4 “The European Union should become one country” 0.68 5 “I am in favor of efforts being made to unify Europe” 0.95 6 Trust in European Parliament8 0.92 7 Trust in EU Commission8 0.95 8 “Being a citizen of the European Union means a lot to me” 0.94 9 “The European flag means a lot to me” 0.86 10 “I am proud to be a European citizen” 0.78 11 “I am afraid of the European Union” 0.78 12 “I am threatened by the European Union” 0.82 13 “I am angry about the European Union” 0.82 14 “I am disgusted about the European Union” 0.83
Model fit indices: Chi2 = 337.695; RMSEA = 0.059 [0.053, 0.065]; CFI = 0.972; TLI = 0.962; SRMR = 0.040.
7 For each of the following countries, to what extent are you in favour of or against it becoming a member of the EU?” This is followed by the
presentation of three items measuring the admission of Turkey, Iceland and Montenegro”.
8 ”Now, thinking about political institutions for a moment. Using a scale that reaches from 1 to 7, on which 1 means that you have no trust at all
and 7 means that you have a great deal of trust, how much trust do you have in the following institutions?” This was followed by a list of
national institutions as well as the European Parliament and the EU commission.
Table 3 Descriptive Statistics of the Dependent and Independent Variables M SD Alpha 1 2 3 4 5
EU Attitudes 1. Widening 0.39 0.24 0.73 - 2. Deepening 0.26 0.24 0.70 0.33* - 3. Trust 0.34 0.22 0.93 0.44* 0.51* - 4. Identity 0.28 0.22 0.87 0.34* 0.63* 0.63* - 5. Negative Affect towards the EU 0.36 0.26 0.90 -0.36* -0.32* -0.57* -0.35* - Personality traits 6 7 8 9 10 6. Openness 0.60 0.17 0.58 - 7. Conscientiousness 0.71 0.18 0.71 0.07* - 8. Extraversion 0.55 0.20 0.77 0.21* 0.07* - 9. Agreeableness 0.70 0.18 0.77 0.16* 0.27* 0.22* - 10. Neuroticism 0.38 0.20 0.76 -0.16* -0.16* -0.20* -0.07* -
*p<0.05; All scales are scored from 0 to 1. N=1,174
Table 4 The Relationship between Personality Traits and Deepening the EU, Widening the EU, Trust towards EU institutions, Identification witht he EU and Negative Affect towards the EU. Widening Deepening Trust Identity Negative Affect
towards the EU (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Openness 0.15* 0.07 0.02 -0.02 -0.05 (0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.04) (0.04)
Conscientiousness -0.01 0.11* 0.06* -0.02 -0.07
(0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04)
Extraversion -0.09* 0.06 0.02 0.06 0.00
(0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04)
Agreeableness 0.11* -0.14* 0.00 -0.03 -0.01
(0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.04) (0.04)
Neuroticism 0.12* 0.08* 0.03 0.04 0.07*
(0.03) (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04)
Sex -0.01 -0.00 0.02 0.03* -0.01
(0.01) (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) (0.01)
Age 0.00 0.01* -0.00 -0.00 -0.01
(0.00) (0.01) (0.00) (0.00) (0.01)
Education 0.02* -0.00 0.00 -0.00 -0.02*
(0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Income 0.00 0.00 -0.00 0.00 0.00
(0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Government Approval 0.18* 0.19* 0.32* 0.19* -0.23* (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) Economic Outlook 0.17* 0.14* 0.30* 0.23* -0.35* (0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04)
Political Interest 0.03 0.10* 0.09* 0.11* 0.02
(0.03) (0.03) (0.02) (0.02) (0.03)
Politcial Knowledge 0.02 -0.07* -0.06* -0.10* 0.02
(0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03)
Anti-immigrant -0.11* -0.11* -0.14* -0.11* 0.14*
(0.03) (0.03) (0.02) (0.03) (0.03)
National identity -0.08* -0.17* -0.11* -0.06* 0.18*
(0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03)
Constant 0.10 0.16* 0.12* 0.15* 0.59*
(0.06) (0.06) (0.05) (0.05) (0.06)
N 1,174 1,174 1,174 1,174 1,174
R2
0.20 0.15 0.41 0.20 0.31 ∆F
2 7.82 4.48 ns ns 2.39
OLS regression coefficients with standard errors reported in parentheses. Weights are applied. *p<0.05
Supplementary Material A – Item Wording Mini-IPIP Introduction to participants
Describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future. Describe yourself as you honestly see yourself, in relation to other people you know of the same sex as you are, and roughly your same age. So that you can describe yourself in an honest manner, your responses will be kept in absolute confidence. Indicate for each statement whether it is 1. Very inaccurate, 2. Moderately inaccurate 3. Neither accurate nor inaccurate 4. Moderately accurate 5. Very accurate Table A.1 Item wording of the 20-item IPIP measure
Trait Wording
Openness
1 Have a vivid imagination 2 Am not interested in abstract ideas (R) 3 Have difficulty understanding abstract ideas (R) 4 Do not have a good imagination (R) Conscientiousness
1 Get chores done right away 2 Like order 3 Make a mess of things (R) 4 Often forget to put things back in their proper place (R) Extraversion
1 Am the life of the party 2 Talk to a lot of different people at parties 3 Don’t’ talk a lot (R) 4 Keep in the background (R) Agreeableness
1 Sympathize with others’ feelings 2 Feel others’ emotions 3 Am not interested in other people’s problems (R) 4 Am not really interested in others (R) Neuroticism
1 Get upset easily 2 Have frequent mood swings 3 Am relaxed most of the time (R) 4 Seldom feel blue (R)
Supplementary Material B – Factor Structure Mini-IPIP We ran a Confirmatory Factor Analysis to assess factor structure of the Mini IPIP. The factor structure is acceptable (see Table B.1). The indices of the model fit are not perfect but they are in line with existing research (Baldasaro et al., 2013; Cooper et al., 2010; Donnellan et al., 2006). Table B.1 Factor Loadings and Model Fit Mini-IPIP Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
O1 0.24
O2 0.66
O3 0.82
O4 0.34
C1 0.57
C2 0.62
C3 0.65
C4 0.63
E1 0.62
E2 0.65
E3 0.73
E4 0.70
A1 0.61
A2 0.56
A3 0.72
A4 0.80
N1 0.64
N2 0.72
N3 0.66
N4 0.64
Model fit indices: Chi2 = 980.23; RMSE A= 0.066 [0.062, 0.070]; CFI = 0.861; TLI = 0.835; SRMR = 0.057).
Supplementary Material C – Descriptive statistics
Here we describe the item wording of the covariates and the descriptive statistics of these
covariates (see Table C.1) and the correlations between all the dependent variables and the
independent variables (Table C.2).
First, government approval was measured using one item asking “The current national
government is doing a good job”. This item was scored on a seven-point Likert-scale ranging
from “strongly disgree” (1) through “strongly agree” (7). Economic outlook was measured
using one item. Specifically, participants were asked: “Looking at the economic situation in
the Netherlands, do you think the situation will be better or worse twelve months from
now?” This item was scored on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from “much worse” (1)
through ”much better” (7).
Attitudes towards immigrants were scored using five items, such as “Immigrants are a
threat to the security of Dutch people.” Again, the items were scored on a seven-point
Likert-scale ranging from “strongly disgree” (1) through “strongly agree” (7). The items were
internally consitent (Cronbach α = 0.80). The items were scored to range on a scale from
positive attitudes towards immigrants (0) through ant-immigrants attitudes (1). National
identity was measured using four items, such as “I am proud to be a Dutch citizen”. The four
items were internally consistent (Cronbach α = 0.87) and we created a scale ranging from no
natioanl identity (0) through a high national identity (1).
Political knowledge was measured using five items tapping into knowledge about
politics. For instance, participants were asked to indicate “what is the name of the current
minister of foreign affairs”. Note that they could choose from five different options or signal
“”don’t know”. We created an additive scale ranging from no questions correct through all
questions correct (5). Lastly, political interest was measured using one item, namely “How
interested are you in politics”. Respondents answered on a seven-point Likert-scale ranging
from “not at all interested” (1) through “very much interested” (7).
Table C.1 Descriptive Statistics Control Variables M SD % Min Max
Government Approval 0.33 0.24 0 1
Economic Outlook 0.49 0.20 0 1
Political Interest 0.49 0.28 0 1
Political Knowledge 0.37 0.22 0 1
Anti-immigrant Attitudes 0.57 0.23 0 1
National Identity 0.69 0.22 0 1
Income 5.61 2.97 1 11
Education
No education 5.11
Preparatory secondary education 14.91
High school (first 3 years) 4.86
Secondary vocational education 34.58
Pre-university education 4.86
Some college 24.62
College 11.07
Gender
Men 49.15
Woman 50.85
Age 4.24 1.41 1 6
N = 1,174. Income is scored in 11 categories. Age is scored in six age categories.
Table C.2 Correlations between dependent variables and key independent variables
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. Widening -
2. Deepening 0.33* -
3. Trust 044* 0.51* -
4. Identity 0.34* 0.63* 0.63* -
5. Negative Affect towards the EU -0.36* -0.32* -0.57* -0.35* -
6. Openness 0.18* 0.07* 0.12* 0.05 -0.16* -
7. Conscientiousness 0.00 0.04 0.04 -0.01 -0.08* 0.07* -
8. Extraversion -0.07* 0.01 0.01 0.05 -0.01 0.21* 0.07* -
9. Agreeableness 0.07* -0.06* 0.05 -0.01 -0.07* 0.16* 0.27* 0.22* -
10. Neuroticism 0.02 0.01 -0.04 0.01 0.10* -0.16* -0.16* -0.20* -0.07* -
*p<0.05
Supplementary Material D – Split Widening to the EU dimension
The item tapping into the attitude towards admission of Iceland to the EU loaded somewhat
lower on the widening dimension (Table 2 in the paper) compared to the attitude towards
admission of Turkey and/or Montenegro. Accordingly, one might wonder to what extent the
correlates of including Iceland in the EU are different compared to Turkey and Montenegro.
We created two new independent variables. The first dimension taps into the admission of
Turkey and Montenegro (α = 0.76). The second dimension taps into the admission of Iceland.
The two dimensions are modestly correlated (r = 0.46).
Table D1 presents the results for two OLS regression models where we estimate the
same model as presented in Table 2 of the paper but instead we focus upon attitudes
towards admission of Turkey and Montenegro (column 1) and attitudes towards the
admission of Iceland (column 2). The only difference is reported with regard the trait
Extraversion. This means that the highly extraverted are only more opposed to the
introduction of Iceland but not the introduction of Turkey and Montenegro. When it comes
to the control variables, the anti-immigrant attitudes and national identity are strong
correlates of attitudes towards Turkey and Montenegro but not towards Iceland.
Table D.1 Attitudes towards widening the EU: Turkey and Montenegro as well as Iceland.
Turkey and Montenegro
(1)
Iceland
(2)
Openness 0.15* 0.14* (0.04) (0.06) Conscientiousness -0.03 0.03 (0.04) (0.05) Extraversion -0.05 -0.15* (0.04) (0.05) Agreeableness 0.11* 0.11* (0.04) (0.05) Neuroticism 0.12* 0.14* (0.04) (0.05) Sex 0.00 -0.04* (0.01) (0.02) Age 0.00 0.01 (0.01) (0.01) Education 0.01* 0.03* (0.00) (0.01) Income 0.00 0.00 (0.00) (0.00) Government Approval 0.21* 0.13* (0.03) (0.04) Economic Outlook 0.14* 0.23* (0.04) (0.05) Political Interest 0.03 0.01 (0.03) (0.04) Politcial Knowledge -0.04 0.15* (0.03) (0.04) Anti-immigrant attitudes -0.14* -0.05 (0.03) (0.04) National identity -0.12* -0.01 (0.03) (0.04) Constant 0.11 0.06 (0.06) (0.08)
N 1,174 1,174 R2 0.17 0.16
*p<0.05
Supplementary Material E – Indirect Associations
In this Supplementary Material we assess the indirect effects of personality traits on EU attitudes.
We start with the discussion of indirect associations by examining the associations between
the four political motivational control variables and the personality traits. In Table E.1, we
present the results of four OLS regression analyses where we regressed the political
motivational control variables on the personality traits.
Generally, our findings confirm that the personality traits, especially Openness, are
correlated with political interest and political knowledge (Gerber et al., 2011). We also
observe associations between attitudes towards immigrants and the traits
Conscientiousness and Neuroticism (Gallego and Pardos-Prado, 2014) but not Openness. We
also observe associations with national identification. Indeed, agreeableness is positively
associated with national identification (Duckitt and Sibley, 2014). But we find a positive
association with Extraversion and also association with Neuroticism and Conscientiousness.
The associations between the personality traits and the governmental approval and
economic evaluations have not received much attention in the literature and the personality
traits seem generally unrelated to these covariates.
Importantly, one could argue that the effects of personality traits are mediated by
the political motivational covariates. Mediation analyses has received considerable criticism
(Bullock et al., 2010; Imai et al., 2011). However, we estimated the direct, indirect and total
effects for each of the personality traits on the different EU attitudes in a series of structural
equation models. We expected the effects of the personality traits to be direct and not
mediated via the political motivational control variables. As can be seen in Table E.2 we find
indeed only direct associations between the personality traits and the EU attitudes. The are
no substantive indirect effects of the personality traits via the political motivational
variables. Importantly, we have excluded the specific indirect paths of each personality on a
EU attitude via all six political motivational variables. The effects of each path are non-
significant and available upon request.
In sum, we have observed that personality traits are predictors of the political
motivational variables. Yet, the effect of personality traits on the EU attitudes does not
travel via these political motivational variables.
Table E.1 Personality traits and political motivational covariates
Government Approval
Economic Outlook
Political Interest
Political Knowledge
Anti-immigrant Attitudes
National Identity
Openness -0.02 -0.00 0.18* 0.12* -0.07 -0.08 (0.05) (0.04) (0.05) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) Conscientiousness 0.07 0.03 -0.01 0.03 0.08* 0.12* (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) Extraversion -0.02 -0.06 0.10* 0.02 0.05 0.10* (0.04) (0.03) (0.04) (0.03) (0.04) (0.03) Agreeableness -0.10* -0.06 0.15* 0.02 0.02 0.18* (0.04) (0.04) (0.05) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) Neuroticism -0.08* -0.07* -0.09* -0.08* 0.08* -0.07* (0.04) (0.03) (0.04) (0.03) (0.04) (0.03) Sex 0.02 -0.00 -0.09* -0.05* -0.04* -0.04* (0.01) (0.01) (0.02) (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) Age -0.01 0.00 0.03* 0.02* -0.02* 0.00 (0.01) (0.00) (0.01) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) Education 0.02* 0.02* 0.02* 0.02* -0.03* -0.03* (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) Income 0.00 0.01* -0.01* -0.00 -0.00 -0.00 (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) Constant 0.27* 0.41* 0.24* 0.19* 0.75* 0.67* (0.06) (0.05) (0.06) (0.05) (0.05) (0.05)
N 1,174 1,174 1,174 1,174 1,174 1,174 R2 0.05 0.05 0.12 0.09 0.06 0.11
Standard errors are reported in parentheses. Weights are applied. *p<0.05
Table E.2 Total, Direct and Indirect Effects of Personality Traits on the EU attitude dimensions Total Effect Direct
effect Indirect effect
Widening Openness 0.16* 0.15* 0.02 (0.06) (0.05) (0.03) Conscientiousness -0.01 -0.01 0.00* (0.07) (0.05) (0.03) Extraversion -0.11* -0.09* -0.03 (0.04) (0.04) (0.02) Agreeableness 0.07 0.11* -0.04 (0.06) (0.06) (0.03) Neuroticism 0.09 0.12 -0.03 (0.06) (0.05) (0.02) Deeping Openness 0.04 0.07 0.03 (0.04) (0.05) (0.02 Conscientiousness -0.01 0.11 -0.01 (0.03) (0.04) (0.02) Extraversion 0.06 0.06* -0.03 (0.03) (0.04) (0.02) Agreeableness -0.10* -0.14* -0.04 (0.04) (0.04) (0.03) Neuroticism 0.04 0.08 -0.02 (0.03) (0.04) (0.02) Trust Openness 0.04 0.02 0.02 (0.06) (0.04) (0.04) Conscientiousness 0.07 0.06 0.01 (0.06) (0.03) (0.04) Extraversion -0.02 0.02 -0.04 (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) Agreeableness -0.06 0.00 -0.06 (0.07) (0.04) (0.05) Neuroticism -0.02 0.03 -0.05 (0.06) (0.03) (0.04)
Identity Openness 0.00 -0.02 0.02 (0.05) (0.04) (0.03) Conscientiousness -0.02 0.02 0.00 (0.06) (0.05) (0.03) Extraversion 0.04 0.06# -0.02 (0.04) (0.03) (0.02) Agreeableness -0.06 -0.03 -0.03 (0.06) (0.04) (0.03) Neuroticism 0.01 0.04 -0.04 (0.05) (0.04) (0.02) Negative Affect Openness -0.06 -0.05 -0.01 (0.09) (0.06) (0.05) Conscientiousness -0.07 -0.07 -0.00 (0.09) (0.05) (0.04) Extraversion 0.06 0.00 0.05 (0.05) (0.04) (0.03) Agreeableness 0.07 0.01 0.08 (0.09) (0.06) (0.05) Neuroticism 0.11 0.07 0.04 (0.06) (0.04) (0.04)
Standard errors are reported in parentheses. *p<0.05
Supplementary Material F
We have considered the thoughtful observation that there could be interactions between
Big Five traits and education as well as other theoretically relevant predictors of EU
attitudes. The most likely interaction would be between personality traits and political
knowledge (Jost et al., 2009), education (Osborne & Sibley, 2012, 2013), and political
interest (Leone, Desimoni, & Chirumbolo, 2012). For all three variables the argument would
be that the more knowledgeable, educated, and interested voters would be better equipped
to align their Big Five traits with their EU attitudes.
In this supplementary material, we have explored this opportunity in a series of
subsequent models. We find, in line with the research by Osborne and Sibley (2012, 2013)
that there is indeed a significant interaction between the trait Openness and political
knowledge. There is a statistically significant marginal effect of Openness on the different EU
attitudes among the political knowledgeable compared to voters with lower levels of
political knowledge (see Figure F.1 through F.4). Yet, there were no consistent interactions
between any of the other Big Five traits and political knowledge. Likewise, we do not find
any evidence for the interaction between the Big Five traits and political interest or
education. The results of these models are not reported here but are available upon request
from the authors.
These expectations are not necessarily in line with the aforementioned literature. In this
study we want to refrain from post hoc explanations why there is a significant interaction
effect between Openness and political knowledge while the interactions between Openness
and education or interest are not present. Likewise, we do not want to provide a post hoc
explanation in the paper why we fail to find a consistent pattern between the other Big Five
traits and education, political knowledge or political interest. Future research should study
the interaction between personality and political sophistication in greater detail.
Table F.1 Personality X Political Knowledge
Widening Deepening Trust Identity Negative Affect
Openness 0.08 -0.02 -0.11 -0.22* 0.09 (0.08) (0.08) (0.06) (0.07) (0.08)
Conscientiousness 0.07 0.07 0.02 -0.07 -0.12
(0.07) (0.07) (0.05) (0.06) (0.07)
Extraversion 0.12 0.19* 0.12* 0.12 -0.06
(0.07) (0.07) (0.06) (0.06) (0.07)
Agreeableness 0.04 -0.19* -0.05 0.05 -0.04
(0.08) (0.08) (0.06) (0.07) (0.08)
Neuroticism 0.14* 0.09 0.09 0.05 0.19*
(0.06) (0.07) (0.05) (0.06) (0.07)
Openness * Knowledgde 0.15 0.24 0.33* 0.56* -0.36
(0.18) (0.19) (0.14) (0.16) (0.19)
Conscientiousness * Knowledgde -0.18 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.10
(0.15) (0.16) (0.12) (0.14) (0.16)
Extraversion* Knowledgde -0.56* -0.37* -0.27* -0.15 0.17
(0.16) (0.17) (0.13) (0.15) (0.17)
Agreeableness * Knowledgde 0.20 0.15 0.16 -0.24 0.10
(0.18) (0.19) (0.15) (0.16) (0.19)
Neuroticism * Knowledgde -0.03 -0.02 -0.16 -0.01 -0.32*
(0.15) (0.15) (0.12) (0.13) (0.15)
Sex -0.01 -0.00 0.02 0.03* -0.01
(0.01) (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) (0.01)
Age 0.00 0.01* -0.00 -0.00 -0.01
(0.00) (0.01) (0.00) (0.00) (0.01)
Education 0.02* -0.00 0.00 -0.00 -0.02*
(0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Income -0.00 0.00 -0.00 0.00 0.00
(0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Government Approval 0.18* 0.19* 0.32* 0.19* -0.23* (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) Economic Outlook 0.16* 0.14* 0.30* 0.23* -0.35* (0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04)
Political Interest 0.03 0.10* 0.09* 0.11* 0.02
(0.03) (0.03) (0.02) (0.02) (0.03)
Politcial Knowledge 0.24 -0.20 -0.27 -0.30 0.12
(0.19) (0.20) (0.16) (0.17) (0.20)
Anti-immigrant -0.11* -0.11* -0.14* -0.11* 0.14*
(0.03) (0.03) (0.02) (0.03) (0.03)
National identity -0.08* -0.16* -0.11* -0.06* 0.17*
(0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03)
Constant 0.00 0.19* 0.18* 0.22* 0.55*
(0.09) (0.09) (0.07) (0.08) (0.09)
N 1,174 1,174 1,174 1,174 1,174
R2
0.21 0.16 0.41 0.21 0.31 F-test of interaction 2.92* 1.31 2.81* 2.88* 1.73
*p<0.05
Figure F.1. Marginal effect of Personality traits on attitudes towards Widening of the EU over the
range of Political Knowledge.
Figure F.2 Marginal effect of Openness on trust in the EU over the range of Political Knowledge.
Figure F.3 Marginal effect of Openness on identification with the EU over the range of Political
Knowledge.
Figure F.4 Marginal effect of Openness and Neuroticism on the Negative Affect experienced towards
the EU over the range of Political Knowledge.
-.1
0
.1
.2
.3
.4
Marg
inal e
ffect
of
Ope
nn
ess
0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1Political Knowledge
1 Percent
Marginal Effect of Openness
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
Dis
trib
ution
Kn
ow
ledg
e
-.6
-.4
-.2
0
.2
Marg
inal e
ffect
of
Extr
ave
rsio
n
0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1Political Knowledge
1 Percent
Marginal Effect of Extraversion
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
Dis
trib
ution
Kn
ow
ledg
e
-.1
0
.1
.2
.3
.4
Marg
inal e
ffect
of
Ag
reea
ble
ne
ss
0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1Political Knowledge
1 Percent
Marginal Effect of Agreeableness
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
Dis
trib
ution
Kn
ow
ledg
e
-.2
0
.2
.4
Marg
inal e
ffect
of
Ope
nn
ess
0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1Political Knowledge
1 Percent
Marginal Effect of Openness
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
Dis
trib
ution
Kn
ow
ledg
e
-.4
-.2
0
.2
.4
.6
Marg
inal e
ffect
of
Ope
nn
ess
0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1Political Knowledge
1 Percent
Marginal Effect of Openness
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
Dis
trib
ution
Kn
ow
ledg
e
-.6
-.4
-.2
0
.2
Marg
inal e
ffect
of
Ope
nn
ess
0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1Political Knowledge
1 Percent
Marginal Effect of Openness
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
Dis
trib
ution
Kn
ow
ledg
e
-.4
-.2
0
.2
.4
Marg
inal e
ffect
of
Neu
roticis
m
0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1Political Knowledge
1 Percent
Marginal Effect of Neuroticism
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
Dis
trib
ution
Kn
ow
ledg
e
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