Abstract
Is there a link between personality and the electoral and in-office success of politicians? Using the Ten-Item Personality Inventory, we examine whether the Five-Factor Model personality traits are correlated with political success among Belgian elected officials. We look at three different measures of political success, corresponding to different stages of the political career—electoral success, years in office, and access to an elite political position—and find lower levels of agreeableness are systematically correlated with greater success. These results are in line with those found among American and European CEO’s (Boudreau et al. in J Vocat Behav 58(1):53–81, 2001). This study offers a unique insight in the type of personality voters and party leadership look for and reward among politicians.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Election results for each Parliament and constituency can be found here:
http://www.vlaanderenkiest.be/verkiezingen2014/#/parlement/R02000/uitslagen,
http://bru2014.irisnet.be/web5Site/nl/index.html,
http://bru2014.irisnet.be/web5Site/nl/cha/results/results_start.html,
http://elections.fgov.be/index.php?id=3265&L=1,
Preference vote = individual number of preference votes/total votes of the party in that district * 100.
It is worth noting that both our sample generally, and our sample of elites versus non-elites, are not biased in terms of political ideology. For instance, using the most recent Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) data (Bakker et al. 2015; Polk et al. 2017), we observe that the average ideological left–right position for elites is 5.4 and 5.6 for non-elites—0 corresponds to the most left and 10 to the most right wing party. The CHES data include local expert assessments on the ideological left (0)–right (10) position for each political party in a given country.
Since 2002, electoral lists at the federal and regional levels are required to present an equal number of men and women.
We also tested for interaction effects between personality and the covariates. We tested this by running models in which each personality trait was interacted (separately) with either sex or age (in the models that control for demographics). In no instance was the interaction statistically significant.
References
Bakker, R., C. de Vries, E. Edwards, L. Hooghe, S. Jolly, G. Marks, et al. 2015. Measuring party positions in Europe: The Chapel Hill expert survey trend file, 1999–2010. Party Politics 21 (1): 143–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068812462931.
Barbaranelli, C., G.V. Caprara, M. Vecchione, and C.R. Fraley. 2007. Voters’ personality traits in presidential elections. Personality and Individual Differences 42 (7): 1199–1208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.09.029.
Boudreau, J.W., W.R. Boswell, and T.A. Judge. 2001. Effects of Personality on Executive Career Success in the United States and Europe. Journal of Vocational Behavior 58 (1): 53–81. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2000.1755.
Bozionelos, N. 2004. Mentoring provided: Relation to mentor’s career success, personality, and mentoring received. Journal of Vocational Behavior 64 (1): 24–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-8791(03)00033-2.
Caprara, G.V., C. Barbaranelli, C. Consiglio, L. Picconi, and P.G. Zimbardo. 2003. Personalities of politicians and voters: Unique and synergistic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84 (4): 849–856. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.849.
Caprara, G.V., C. Barbaranelli, and P.G. Zimbardo. 1999. Personality profiles and political parties. Political Psychology 20 (1): 175–197. https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895X.00141.
Caprara, G.V., D. Francescato, M. Mebane, R. Sorace, and M. Vecchione. 2010. Personality foundations of ideological divide: A comparison of women members of parliament and women voters in Italy. Political Psychology 31 (5): 739–762. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2010.00780.x.
Caprara, G.V., S. Schwartz, C. Capanna, M. Vecchione, and C. Barbaranelli. 2006. Personality and politics: Values, traits, and political choice. Political Psychology 27 (1): 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2006.00447.x.
Carney, D.R., J.T. Jost, S.D. Gosling, and J. Potter. 2008. The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Political Psychology 29 (6): 807–840. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00668.x.
Cloninger, S. 2009. Conceptual issues in personality theory. In The Cambridge handbook of personality psychology, 1st ed, ed. P.J. Corr and G. Matthews, 3–26. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cooper, C.A., L. Golden, and A. Socha. 2013. The Big Five personality factors and mass politics. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 43 (1): 68–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00982.x.
Dietrich, B.J., S. Lasley, J.J. Mondak, M.L. Remmel, and J. Turner. 2012. Personality and legislative politics: The Big Five trait dimensions among U.S. state legislators. Political Psychology 33 (2): 195–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2012.00870.x.
DiRenzo, G. J. 1967. Professional politicians and personality structures. American Journal of Sociology 73 (2): 217–225.
Ehrhart, M.G., K.H. Ehrhart, S.C. Roesch, B.G. Chung-Herrera, K. Nadler, and K. Bradshaw. 2009. Testing the latent factor structure and construct validity of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. Personality and Individual Differences 47 (8): 900–905. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.07.012.
Feist, J., and G.J. Feist (eds.). 2009. Theories of personality, 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Ferguson, C.J. 2010. A meta-analysis of normal and disordered personality across the life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98 (4): 659–667. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018770.
Gelissen, J., and P.M. de Graaf. 2006. Personality, social background, and occupational career success. Social Science Research 35 (3): 702–726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.06.005.
Gerber, A.S., G.A. Huber, D. Doherty, and C.M. Dowling. 2011. Personality traits and the consumption of political information. American Politics Research 39 (1): 32–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X10381466.
Gosling, S.D., P.J. Rentfrow, and W.B. Swann Jr. 2003. A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality 37 (6): 504–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1.
Ha, S.E., and R.R. Lau. 2015. Personality traits and correct voting. American Politics Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X14568551.
Hofmans, J., P. Kuppens, and J. Allik. 2008. Is short in length short in content? An examination of the domain representation of the Ten Item Personality Inventory scales in Dutch language. Personality and Individual Differences 45 (8): 750–755.
Jang, K.L., W.J. Livesley, and P.A. Vemon. 1996. Heritability of the Big Five personality dimensions and their facets: A twin study. Journal of Personality 64 (3): 577–592. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1996.tb00522.x.
Joly, J.K., J. Hofmans, and P. Loewen. 2018. Personality and party ideology among politicians. A closer look at political elites from Canada and Belgium. Frontiers in Psychology 9: 552.
Judge, T.A., C.A. Higgins, C.J. Thoresen, and M.R. Barrick. 1999. The Big Five personality traits, general mental ability, and career success across the life span. Personnel Psychology 52 (3): 621–652. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00174.x.
Judge, T.A., and J.D. Kammeyer-Mueller. 2007. Personality and career success. In Handbook of career studies, ed. H.P. Gunz and M. Peiperl. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Levy, J.S. 2013. Psychology and foreign policy decision-making. In The Oxford handbook of political psychology, eds. H. Leonie, O.S. David, and S.L. Jack, 314–316. New York: OUP.
Lilienfeld, S.O., I.D. Waldman, K. Landfield, A.L. Watts, S. Rubenzer, and T.R. Faschingbauer. 2012. Fearless dominance and the US presidency: Implications of psychopathic personality traits for successful and unsuccessful political leadership. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103 (3): 489.
Löckenhoff, C.E., A. Terracciano, O.J. Bienvenu, N.S. Patriciu, G. Nestadt, R.R. McCrae, et al. 2008. Ethnicity, education, and the temporal stability of personality traits in the East Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area study. Journal of Research in Personality 42 (3): 577–598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.09.004.
Mansbridge, J. 1999. Should blacks represent blacks and women represent women? A contingent ‘Yes’. Journal of Politics 61: 628–657.
McCrae, R.R., and P.T. Costa. 1997. Personality trait structure as a human universal. American Psychologist 52 (5): 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.52.5.509.
McCrae, R.R., and P.T. Costa. 2005. Personality in adulthood: A Five-Factor theory perspective, vol. 2, 2nd edn. New York: The Guilford Press. https://www.guilford.com/books/Personality-in-Adulthood/McCrae-Costa/9781593852603.
McCrae, R.R., P.T. Costa, M.P. de Lima, A. Simões, F. Ostendorf, A. Angleitner, et al. 1999. Age differences in personality across the adult life span: Parallels in five cultures. Developmental Psychology 35 (2): 466–477. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.35.2.466.
McCrae, R.R., and O.P. John. 1992. An Introduction to the Five-Factor Model and its applications. Journal of Personality 60 (2): 175–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00970.x.
Ng, T.W.H., L.T. Eby, K.L. Sorensen, and D.C. Feldman. 2005. Predictors of objective and subjective career success: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology 58 (2): 367–408. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00515.x.
Pitkin, H.F. 1967. The concept of representation. Berkley: University of California Press.
Polk, J., J. Rovny, R. Bakker, E. Edwards, L. Hooghe, S. Jolly, et al. 2017. Explaining the salience of anti-elitism and reducing political corruption for political parties in Europe with the 2014 Chapel Hill Expert Survey data. Research & Politics. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168016686915.
Raggatt, P. 2006. Putting the five-factor model into context: evidence linking big five traits to narrative identity. Journal of Personality 74 (5): 1321–1348.
Rasmussen, S.H.R. 2015. Education or personality traits and intelligence as determinants of political knowledge? Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12214.
Roberts, B.W., A. Caspi, and T.E. Moffitt. 2001. The kids are alright: Growth and stability in personality development from adolescence to adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81 (4): 670–683. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.4.670.
Rode, J.C., M.L. Arthaud-Day, C.H. Mooney, J.P. Near, and T.T. Baldwin. 2008. Ability and personality predictors of salary, perceived job success, and perceived career success in the initial career stage. International Journal of Selection and Assessment 16 (3): 292–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2008.00435.x.
Rubenzer, S.J., T.R. Faschingbauer, and D.S. Ones. 2000. Assessing the U.S. presidents using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Assessment 7 (4): 403–419. https://doi.org/10.1177/107319110000700408.
Seibert, S.E., and M.L. Kraimer. 2001. The Five-Factor Model of personality and career success. Journal of Vocational Behavior 58 (1): 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2000.1757.
Sheffer, L., P.J. Loewen, S. Soroka, S. Walgrave, and T. Sheafer. 2018. Nonrepresentative representatives: an experimental study of the decision making of elected politicians. American Political Science Review 112 (2): 302–321.
Specht, J., B. Egloff, and S.C. Schmukle. 2011. Stability and change of personality across the life course: The impact of age and major life events on mean-level and rank-order stability of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101 (4): 862–882. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024950.
Sutin, A.R., P.T. Costa, R. Miech, and W.W. Eaton. 2009. Personality and career success: Concurrent and longitudinal relations. European Journal of Personality 23 (2): 71–84. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.704.
Terracciano, A., R.R. McCrae, and P.T. Costa. 2010. Intra-individual change in personality stability and age. Journal of Research in Personality 44 (1): 31–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.09.006.
Vecchione, M., and G.V. Caprara. 2009. Personality determinants of political participation: The contribution of traits and self-efficacy beliefs. Personality and Individual Differences 46 (4): 487–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.11.021.
Vecchione, M., H. Schoen, J.L.G. Castro, J. Cieciuch, V. Pavlopoulos, and G.V. Caprara. 2011. Personality correlates of party preference: The Big Five in five big European countries. Personality and Individual Differences 51 (6): 737–742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.06.015.
Watts, A.L., S.O. Lilienfeld, S.F. Smith, J.D. Miller, W.K. Campbell, I.D. Waldman, et al. 2013. The double-edged sword of grandiose Narcissism: Implications for successful and unsuccessful leadership among U.S. presidents. Psychological Science 24 (12): 2379–2389. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613491970.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix: Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI)
Appendix: Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI)
The next battery of questions is designed to assess certain aspects of your personality. These questions have been used extensively in a wide variety of international studies. We would like to ask you to score a number of these traits for which there is, of course no right or wrong answer. They may seem contradictory, but this is how the battery has been used successfully in prior research. This is important for us, as we would like to know if, for example, extravert representatives have different information processing styles or other views on how to represent citizens. It is important to note that your answers are anonymous and will never be used in a way that can identify you. We list a number of personality traits that may or may not apply to you. Can you indicate to which extent you agree or disagree with each statement. You should rate the extent to which a pair of traits applies to you, even if one characteristic applies more strongly than the other. I see myself as:
Disagree strongly | Disagree moderately | Disagree a little | Neither agree nor disagree | Agree a little | Agree moderately | Agree strongly |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Joly, J., Soroka, S. & Loewen, P. Nice guys finish last: personality and political success. Acta Polit 54, 667–683 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-018-0095-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-018-0095-z