Personality, Motives, and Political Participation

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter reviews and discusses research on personality, motives, and political participation. It introduces the concepts of personality and motives and discusses their role within participation research. In particular, the literature on personality traits (“Big Five”) and civic engagement is summarized showing that openness to experience and extraversion are the most important correlates of political participation. Regarding motives, the focus is on the role of political interest, political knowledge, political efficacy, and partisanship as factors that promote political action. Beyond reviewing the existing literature, the chapter argues that the link between psychological factors, like personality traits and motives, and political participation is likely to be context dependent. Empirical analyses shown in this chapter lend support to this argument.