There's an interesting
article in WaPo about the similarities between Trump and Sanders voters:
Psychologists distinguish among five general traits that determine our personalities: openness to experience, extroversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness. This last personality trait — agreeableness — is what matters when it comes to populism. Those who score high on agreeableness tend to trust others and to be modest, tolerant and cooperative. Those who score low are egoistic, cynical, distrustful and inclined to believe in conspiracy theories.
...The results clearly show that those who score low on agreeableness are more likely to choose an anti-establishment candidate over a pro-establishment politician. Interestingly, we do not find this to be the case with other messages, such as those emphasizing the centrality and virtuosity of the people or those opposing immigration. This suggests that those low on the personality trait “agreeableness” particularly respond to an anti-establishment message.
Other messages matter in other ways. We found, for instance, that an anti-immigrant message also attracts certain kinds of people: those who score high on authoritarianism. That’s not surprising, as many scholars have found that authoritarianism is linked to support for populist leaders.
Agreements/disagreements? Anyone have any other theories on how personality traits correspond with support for certain types of candidates or other kinds of political behavior?
