Citation

Gøtzsche-Astrup O. Pers. Individ. Dif. 2019; 139: 102-109.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.paid.2018.11.006

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Acts of political violence have negative consequences for intergroup relations, peaceful democratic participation, and increase mistrust and unrest between political groups and factions within society. A growing literature points to the role of uncertainty in driving political violence, but existing studies tend to rely on student and online convenience samples or macro-level indicators of uncertainty. This paper investigates the generalizability or the relationship between uncertainty and political violence and seeks to uncover whether this relationship is homogeneous in the population or contingent on individual differences in personality. In two large samples of the U.S. adult population (total n = 4806), the relationship between uncertainty and political violence is shown to depend on the trait of openness to experience. For those with low levels of openness, there is a strong and replicable relationship between uncertainty and political violence. This is not the case for those with high levels of openness. This interaction is robust to inclusion of a range of demographics factors, and shows how the combination of low openness and high uncertainty is a high-risk mix for political violence not only in a limited part of the population, but across groups and issue cleavages.

Language: en

Keywords

Big five traits; Openness to experience; Political violence; Quantitative methods; Uncertainty