Examines how a natural disaster affects deeply held commitments and global ratings of personal health, depending on earthquake exposure. Investigates whether the earthquake-affected were more likely ...to believe in God. Examines whether religious affiliation was associated with differences in subjective ratings of personal health. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
ABSTRACT
Early theorists assumed that sociopolitical or ideological attitudes were organized along a single left‐right dimension and directly expressed a basic personality dimension. Empirical ...findings, however, did not support this and suggested that there seem to be 2 distinct ideological attitude dimensions, best captured by the constructs of right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, which express 2 distinct sets of motivational goals or values. We outline a dual‐process motivational (DPM) model of how these 2 dimensions originate from particular personality dispositions and socialized worldview beliefs and how and why their different underlying motivational goals or values generate their wide‐ranging effects on social outcomes, such as prejudice and politics. We then review new research bearing on the model and conclude by noting promising directions for future research.
Despite a substantial literature examining personality, prejudice, and related constructs such as Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), there have been no ...systematic reviews in this area. The authors reviewed and meta-analyzed 71 studies (N = 22,068 participants) investigating relationships between Big Five dimensions of personality, RWA, SDO, and prejudice. RWA was predicted by low Openness to Experience but also Conscientiousness, whereas SDO was predicted by low Agreeableness and also weakly by low Openness to Experience. Consistent with a dual-process motivational model of ideology and prejudice, the effects of Agreeableness on prejudice were fully mediated by SDO, and those of Openness to Experience were largely mediated by RWA. Finally, the effects of Agreeableness and Openness to Experience were robust and consistent across samples, although subtle moderating factors were identified, including differences in personality inventory (NEO Personality Inventory—Revised vs. Big Five Inventory), differences across prejudice domain, and cross-cultural differences in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. Implications for the study of personality and prejudice are discussed.
The present study investigated patterns of normative change in personality traits across the adult life span (19 through 74 years of age). We examined change in extraversion, agreeableness, ...conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience and honesty-humility using data from the first 6 annual waves of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N = 10,416; 61.1% female, average age = 49.46). We present a cohort-sequential latent growth model assessing patterns of mean-level change due to both aging and cohort effects. Extraversion decreased as people aged, with the most pronounced declines occurring in young adulthood, and then again in old age. Agreeableness, indexed with a measure focusing on empathy, decreased in young adulthood and remained relatively unchanged thereafter. Conscientiousness increased among young adults then leveled off and remained fairly consistent for the rest of the adult life span. Neuroticism and openness to experience decreased as people aged. However, the models suggest that these latter effects may also be partially due to cohort differences, as older people showed lower levels of neuroticism and openness to experience more generally. Honesty-humility showed a pronounced and consistent increase across the adult life span. These analyses of large-scale longitudinal national probability panel data indicate that different dimensions of personality follow distinct developmental processes throughout adulthood. Our findings also highlight the importance of young adulthood (up to about the age of 30) in personality trait development, as well as continuing change throughout the adult life span.
The contagiousness and deadliness of COVID-19 have necessitated drastic social management to halt transmission. The immediate effects of a nationwide lockdown were investigated by comparing matched ...samples of New Zealanders assessed before (Nprelockdown = 1,003) and during the first 18 days of lockdown (Nlockdown = 1,003). Two categories of outcomes were examined: (a) institutional trust and attitudes toward the nation and government and (b) health and well-being. Applying propensity score matching to approximate the conditions of a randomized controlled experiment, the study found that people in the pandemic/lockdown group reported higher trust in science, politicians, and police, higher levels of patriotism, and higher rates of mental distress compared to people in the prelockdown prepandemic group. Results were confirmed in within-subjects analyses. The study highlights social connectedness, resilience, and vulnerability in the face of adversity and has applied implications for how countries face this global challenge.
Public Significance Statement
This study describes the immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown on levels of institutional trust and attitudes toward the nation and government and health and well-being in New Zealand, with implications for other nations. Our results suggest that a strong national response to COVID-19 may bolster national attachment and increase trust in the bodies determining and enforcing lockdown guidelines. Against a backdrop of general resilience, small increases in psychological distress serve as a warning about potential psychological consequences of lockdown and isolation.
A central challenge for identifying core components of a belief system is examining the position of components within the structure of the entire belief system. We test whether operational (i.e., ...positions on issues) or symbolic (i.e., affective attachments to political groups and labels) components are most central by modeling a political belief system as a network of interconnected attitudes and beliefs. Across seven waves of representative panel data from New Zealand, we find that symbolic components are more central than operational components (ds range = 0.78-0.97). Symbolic components were also closer than operational components in the network to self-reported voting (d = −2.43), proenvironmental actions (ds = −1.71 and −1.63), and religious behaviors (d = −0.74). These findings are consistent with perspectives that emphasize the importance of symbolic politics in tying belief systems together and motivating behavior, and further the link between political belief system research and network science.
The resurgence of right-wing political parties across the globe raises questions about the origins of national identity. Based on the Dual Process Model of Ideology and Prejudice, we argue that ...people’s tendency to submit to ingroup authorities (Right-Wing Authoritarianism RWA) and preference for group-based hierarchy (Social Dominance Orientation SDO) underlie people’s belief in the superiority of their nation (nationalism) and attachment to their homeland (patriotism). We examine these hypotheses using three waves of data from an annually conducted national longitudinal panel study of New Zealanders (N = 3,838). As predicted, RWA had positive cross-lagged effects on nationalism and patriotism. Conversely, SDO had a positive cross-lagged effect on nationalism, but a negative cross-lagged effect on patriotism. Little evidence of reciprocal cross-lagged effects (i.e., national identity on authoritarianism) was found. These results demonstrate that nationalism and patriotism are related, albeit distinct, ways of identifying with one’s nation that are ultimately rooted in authoritarianism.
This study compared the person and national-level personality correlates of environmental engagement. Associations between specific personality traits and environmental concern have been observed in ...a number of studies, but few have examined associations between the Big Five personality traits and environmental engagement. Associations at the individual-level were examined with the environmental value ‘protecting the environment’ (Study 1) and retrospective self-reports of electricity conservation behaviour (Study 2) in national probability samples. Country-level indices of sustainability, environmental attitudes, and harmony values were related to aggregate personality traits with data across nations (Study 3). Across both persons and nations, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience were the traits most strongly linked to environmental engagement. These findings provide insight into the ways in which stable regularities in overall behavioural patterns are linked to more specific aspects of conservation behaviour and attitudes both in persons and across entire societies. Theoretical explanations for the findings are proposed.
► We examine associations between personality and environmental engagement. ► National samples, self-reported past behaviour and country-level data are used. ► Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience were main predictors. ► Less systematic associations observed for Extraversion and Neuroticism. ► Theoretical explanations for the findings are proposed.
Although the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) demonstrates that identity, efficacy, and injustice are key correlates of collective action, longitudinal tests of these causal ...assumptions are absent from the literature. Moreover, most collective action research focuses on disadvantaged groups’ responses to injustice, with few studies examining what motivates advantaged groups to protest. We address these oversights using nationally representative longitudinal panel data to investigate SIMCA among members of disadvantaged (N = 2,574) and advantaged (N = 13,367) groups. As hypothesized, identity predicted increases in injustice, efficacy, and collective action support over time. In turn, injustice (but not efficacy) mediated the longitudinal association between identity and collective action support. Notably, results were largely consistent across disadvantaged and advantaged groups. Thus, we provide the first demonstration that identity temporally precedes collective action across objectively disadvantaged and advantaged groups, but identify complexities regarding the role of efficacy in protest.
Abstract
Accumulating evidence indicates that climate change awareness and concern has increased globally, but commentators suggest a climate change generation gap whereby younger people care more ...about climate change than older people. Here we use a decade of panel data from 56,513 New Zealanders to test whether belief that “Climate change is real” and “Climate change is caused by humans” increased over the 2009-2018 period; and whether changes are uniform across 12 five-year birth cohorts spanning those born from 1936 to 1995. Results confirm a generation gap in mean (intercept) climate change beliefs but not in over-time increase (slope). The generation gap occurs because older cohorts started from a lower initial belief level (circa 2009), but all age cohorts increased their belief level at a similar rate over the last decade; and these results were not qualified by respondents’ gender. The findings offer hope for collective action that bridges efforts across generations.
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