Personality Traits and Political Ideologies

The relationship between personality traits and political ideologies cannot simply be understood as a negative or positive correlation. Personality traits are combinations of characteristics that we are born with, as well as personal environment that guide our behaviours. Contemporary approaches like those found within Van Hiel, Onraet and De Pauw (2010) assert that social attitudes uphold ideology and that political attitudes encompass authoritarianism, traditional values and rules. Researchers want to try and prove whether right-winged ideologies were accompanied by facets such as rigidity, intolerance of ambiguity and cognitive complexity. An interesting fact about personality traits and political views can be discussed in the work of Sartre (1948) within Van Hiel, Onraet and Pe Pauw (2010) “a man may be a good father and a good husband, a conscientious citizen, highly cultivated, philanthropic and in addition an anti-semite”.   After thoroughly understanding the research, I believe the study in general was very strong that had a strong background and had reliable and note-worthy conclusions.
      The current study focuses on the social cultural attitudes and how these cognitive styles tap into the understanding of political views. Verhulst, Hatemi and Martin (2010) discussed the understanding that environmental influences are personal to an individual and most shape the individuals personality traits. It can be also understood that genetic influences can play a very important part in personality but genes are not just factors but facets to personality traits. Classical studies like those written by Van Hiel, Onraet and De Pauw (2010) include behavioural tasks to measure cognition because it may overlap specific research conclusions that make the theory of political attitudes more reliable. There has been a significant amount of research regarding political ideologies and personality traits but through all this research it cannot be stressed enough that the...