Personality and the Foundations of Political Behavior

Personality and the Foundations of Political Behavior is the first study in more than 30 years to investigate the broad significance of personality traits for mass political behavior. Drawing on the Big Five personality trait framework, Jeffery J. Mondak argues that attention to personality provides a valuable means to integrate biological and environmental influences in rich, nuanced theories and empirical tests of the antecedents of political behavior. Development of such holistic accounts is critical, Mondak contends, if inquiry is to move beyond simple "blank slate" environmental depictions of political engagement. Analyses examining multiple facets of political information, political attitudes, and participation reveal that the Big Five trait dimensions - openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability - produce both direct and indirect effects on a wide range of political phenomena.

Jeffery J. Mondak is James M. Benson Chair in Public Issues and Civic Leadership in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Nothing to Read: Newspapers and Elections in a Social Experiment (1995) and coeditor of Fault Lines: Why the Republicans Lost Congress (2009). Professor Mondak's articles appear in outlets including the Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, Cognitive Brain Research, the Journal of Politics, and Public Opinion Quarterly. He has received awards for his research from the American Association for Public Opinion Research, the American Political Science Association, and the Midwest Political Science Association.