Big Five personality traits and voting: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and mega-analysis.

Abstract

Voting is an important civic behavior that contributes to the vitality of democratic societies. Previous research indicates that personality traits play an important role in voting intentions and behavior, though findings are mixed due to insufficient statistical power and variability in methods and measures. This study synthesizes evidence from a systematic review, leveraging both meta-analysis and mega-analysis to estimate the associations between the Big Five personality traits and voting intentions and behavior. We drew data from 65,036 participants across 17 studies (meta-analysis) and 44,206 participants across 13 studies (mega-analysis). We estimated zero-order correlations between the Big Five traits and voting, and explored moderating effects of personality and voting measures, nationality, gender, and age. We found modest but robust correlations between the Big Five and voting, with effect sizes ranging from .05 to .10. People with stronger intentions to vote were less neurotic and more extraverted, open, agreeable, and conscientious. Low neuroticism was the only trait that predicted voting behavior. Results were somewhat more pronounced in non-U.S. samples. Together, these findings suggest that the Big Five, though modest in effect, are consistent predictors of voting. We discuss implications for future research and applications in fostering voting behavior.