High conscientiousness is strongly associated with political conservatism, although there is dispute as to whether this is a direct effect of personality on ideology or a societally mediated effect (i.e. whether it is conscientiousness → conservatism or conscientiousness → life success → conservatism).
(On the first point see e.g. Hirsh, J.B., DeYoung, C.G., Xu, X., & Peterson, J.B. (2010) - Compassionate liberals and polite conservatives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 655-664. On the second point see e.g. Morton, R., Tyran, J. R., & Wengström, E. (2011). Income and ideology: How personality traits, cognitive abilities, and education shape political attitudes. Univ. of Copenhagen Dept. of Economics Discussion Paper, (11-08).
However, conservatism is negatively associated with openness to experience. I am not aware of any notable political cluster that combines the two.
I am not aware of any notable political cluster that combines the two.
I suspect there is a reason for that. Namely maintaining high conscientiousness on a group level requires a common set of social assumptions and punishing defectors. Both of which are hard to do if you constantly have new people (especially from different cultures) coming to your society. I suspect the only groups that successfully combine openness and conscientiousness are living in isolated locations where natural barriers limit the amount of outsiders without the people having to “get their hands dirty” by lowering openness.
High conscientiousness is strongly associated with political conservatism, although there is dispute as to whether this is a direct effect of personality on ideology or a societally mediated effect (i.e. whether it is conscientiousness → conservatism or conscientiousness → life success → conservatism).
(On the first point see e.g. Hirsh, J.B., DeYoung, C.G., Xu, X., & Peterson, J.B. (2010) - Compassionate liberals and polite conservatives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 655-664. On the second point see e.g. Morton, R., Tyran, J. R., & Wengström, E. (2011). Income and ideology: How personality traits, cognitive abilities, and education shape political attitudes. Univ. of Copenhagen Dept. of Economics Discussion Paper, (11-08).
However, conservatism is negatively associated with openness to experience. I am not aware of any notable political cluster that combines the two.
I suspect there is a reason for that. Namely maintaining high conscientiousness on a group level requires a common set of social assumptions and punishing defectors. Both of which are hard to do if you constantly have new people (especially from different cultures) coming to your society. I suspect the only groups that successfully combine openness and conscientiousness are living in isolated locations where natural barriers limit the amount of outsiders without the people having to “get their hands dirty” by lowering openness.
Extreme case: the Amish