Personality and European Union attitudes: Relationships across European Union attitude dimensions
| Author | Claes H de Vreese,Bert N Bakker |
| Published date | 01 March 2016 |
| Date | 01 March 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1465116515595885 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
European Union Politics
2016, Vol. 17(1) 25–45
! The Author(s) 2015
Personality and European
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Union attitudes:
DOI: 10.1177/1465116515595885
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Relationships across
European Union attitude
dimensions
Bert N Bakker
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Claes H de Vreese
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
We still do not fully understand why attitudes toward the European Union differ among
citizens. In this study, we turn to the Big Five personality traits: Openness,
Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism as antecedents of
European Union attitudes. In a national survey, we focus on attitudes toward widening
and deepening of the European Union, trust in European Union institutions, identifica-
tion with the European Union and negative affect experienced toward the European
Union. We theorize that the Big Five traits are heterogeneously associated with the
different European Union attitudes. We confirm that the Big Five traits are indeed
associated with some but not all European Union attitudes. Accordingly, personality
is expected to shape how citizens’ respond to changes in the institutional set-up of the
European Union.
Keywords
Big Five, European Union attitudes, personality
Introduction
Citizens differ profoundly in their attitudes toward the European Union (EU). EU
attitudes influence citizens’ vote choice in elections for the European parliament
Corresponding author:
Bert N Bakker, Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe
Achtergracht 166, Postbus 15793, 1001 NG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Email: b.n.bakker@uva.nl
26
European Union Politics 17(1)
(de Vries and Tillman, 2011), EU referendums (Hobolt, 2005) and national elec-
tions (de Vries, 2007). Extant research has documented that socio-economic status,
political sophistication and evaluations of the government and 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 have been shown to predict 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 toward the EU differ among citizens.
Recent research re-emphasizes that personality is an important antecedent of
political attitudes (Gerber et al., 2010; Mondak and Halperin, 2008). A commonly
employed model of personality is the Big Five model which isolates the traits
Openness (to Experience), Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and
Neuroticism (Digman, 1990; Goldberg, 1992). Big Five traits shape political atti-
tudes 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 attitude dimensions (Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Hobolt
and Brouard, 2010). For instance, attitudes toward 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
toward the EU (Boomgaarden et al., 2011) as EU attitudes. These attitudes influ-
ence vote choice in European elections and referenda (Hobolt and Brouard, 2010;
Maier et al., 2015; van Spanje and De Vreese, 2011). Accordingly, it is important to
study the antecedents of the different EU attitude dimensions.
We turn to the Big Five personality traits as antecedents of EU attitudes.
We argue, and confirm in a national survey conducted in the Netherlands,
that Big Five personality traits correlate heterogeneously with the different EU atti-
tudes. This article, for instance, shows 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 inde-
pendent of commonly identified antecedents of EU attitudes such as government
evaluation, economic outlook, national identity and anti-immigrant attitudes.
The contribution of this study is twofold. First, by establishing the associations
between the Big Five traits and EU attitudes, we demonstrate that personality is an
important antecedent of EU attitudes. Second, this study has isolated a set of
personality characteristics which should interact with the environment in shaping
citizens’ attitudes toward the EU. For instance, our findings suggest that the open-
minded, agreeable and neurotic citizens will respond positively to expansion of the
Bakker and de Vreese
27
EU. Acknowledging differences in personality traits, 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 (Gerber et al., 2010; Jost et al., 2009; Mondak and Halperin,
2008). Often these studies employ the Big Five model of personality that encap-
sulates 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 imagin-
ation, are curious and open-minded. Conscientious persons prefer order, adhere to
social norms, plan and organize tasks, 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.
Big Five traits are core characteristics that share a set of attributes which make it
possible to assume that they shape attitudes and behaviors (Asendorpf and van
Aken, 2003). Specifically, they are heritable (Yamagata et al., 2006), robust across
cultures (McCrae and Terracciano, 2005) and relatively stable over time (Roberts
et al., 2006). Accordingly, Big Five traits can be seen as ‘stable individual level
differences in people’s motivational reactions to circumscribed classes of environ-
mental stimuli’ (Denissen and Penke, 2008: 1286). The attitudes and behaviors that
are influenced by personality traits, so-called surface characteristics, are less stable
and more adaptable to cultural and social influences (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).
Political attitudes are a typical example of surface characteristics. 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). For instance, Big Five traits have shown to
be antecedents of attitudes toward moral issues (Gerber et al., 2010; Mondak,
2010) and anti-immigrant attitudes (Dinesen et al., 2014). Importantly, the strength
and direction of the associations between personality traits, such as the Big Five
traits and political attitudes is conditional upon the attitude of interest (Carney
et al., 2008; Feldman and Johnston, 2014).
Big Five personality traits and EU attitudes
The association between personality traits and support for integration of the EU
was addressed by Schoen (2007) who demonstrated that high scorers on Openness
28
European Union Politics 17(1)
and Agreeableness are supportive of further integration of the EU and the intro-
duction of the Euro.1 Moreover, Conscientiousness was associated with opposition
to EU integration. Support for EU integration itself is, however, only one of mul-
tiple EU attitudes (Boomgaarden et al., 2011; Hobolt, 2014; Hobolt and Brouard,
2010). In this study, we focus upon attitudes toward (a) widening of the EU,
(b) deepening of the EU, (c) trust in EU institutions, (d) identification with the
EU and (e) negative affect toward the EU.
We theorize that the Big Five traits correlate heterogeneously with the different
EU attitudes. Importantly, formulating our expectations we observe three different
patterns. First, there are associations between Big Five traits and EU attitudes
which, supported by earlier research, lead to directional expectations. An example
is the expected positive association between Openness and support for widening of
the EU. Second, some expectations are not necessarily fueled 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
toward the EU fits within this category. Third, some expectations are necessarily
more explorative due to competing insights based upon earlier...
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