It's not always about the issues: The role of perceived personality trait similarity on interpersonal political discussion.

Recently a substantial body of work has sought to identify and understand the relationship between personality traits and political attitudes, opinions and behaviors. One specific line of inquiry has been on the direct and mediated influence of personality traits on interpersonal political discussion behaviors. Interpersonal political discussion among citizens has long been considered a fundamental linchpin for democratic societies and as such, research has consistently sought to explain the factors motivating individuals to engage in or avoid such conversations, both in general and with specific others. This paper looks to set the boundary conditions under which interpersonal political discussion in the real world may in fact flourish. This paper expands on existing work both theoretically and methodologically. Theoretically this paper considers the effects of personality traits on interpersonal political discussion at the individual and relational level; specifically by considering not only the personality trait of the self, but also the traits of an other within a dyad and the interplay between them. It is hypothesized that as perceived personality trait similarity (PPTS) between an individual and another varies so will their willingness to communicate about politics. Methodologically this paper introduces a novel measure of interpersonal political discussion, willingness to communicate about politics (WTCAP). WTCAP is a state-based variable referring to a person’s likelihood or propensity to actively engage in an informal political discussion in a specific situation. An online survey was conducted during the winter of 2013 with complete data from 291 participants. Participants were first asked questions pertaining to their own personality traits using a short Big Five battery, ideological values, political efficacy, political knowledge, willingness to communicate (WTC), willingness to self-censor (WTSC), political discussion history and general demographics before being asked to identify specific individuals within their social networks. Next respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions of the personality traits of three of their listed network members. Finally a series of hypothetical scenarios were presented and participants were asked to indicate their willingness to communicate about politics in each situation.Results from this study found little evidence that PPTS has a significant effect on WTCAP. Conscientiousness was the only personality trait found to have a significant direct effect on WTCAP. Political interest, and political efficacy were also found to be predictive of WTCAP. Individuals reported being most WTCAP with family members, followed by friends and finally with acquaintances. WTCAP was found to vary a great deal between dyads.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Kleinman, Steven Blake

Contributors dc:contributor

• Eveland, William

• Communication
• Political Discussion
• Personality
• Democracy

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366196383

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1366196383