Personality Traits and the Gender Gap in Ideology
(2016) In Studies in Political Economy p.153-185- Abstract
- What explains the gender gap in ideology, i.e. the observation that women tend to be more leftist than men? We provide new evidence showing that personality traits play a key role. Using a novel high-quality data set, we show that the mediating (i.e. indirect) effects of gender operating through personality traits by far dominate the direct effects of gender. They also dominate other potential differences between the sexes like income or education as explanatory factors. Our findings suggest that women tend to be more leftist than men mainly because they have different personalities, which, in turn, shape their expressed ideology. Taking such mediating effects of personality traits into account explains over three quarters of the observed... (More)
- What explains the gender gap in ideology, i.e. the observation that women tend to be more leftist than men? We provide new evidence showing that personality traits play a key role. Using a novel high-quality data set, we show that the mediating (i.e. indirect) effects of gender operating through personality traits by far dominate the direct effects of gender. They also dominate other potential differences between the sexes like income or education as explanatory factors. Our findings suggest that women tend to be more leftist than men mainly because they have different personalities, which, in turn, shape their expressed ideology. Taking such mediating effects of personality traits into account explains over three quarters of the observed gender gap in general ideological preferences. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/ae297744-034a-4f12-8c70-22646b113400
- author
- Morton, Rebecca ; Tyran, Jean-Robert and Wengström, Erik LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- The Political Economy of Social Choices
- series title
- Studies in Political Economy
- editor
- Gallego, Maria and Schofield, Norman
- pages
- 33 pages
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84988583595
- wos:000392143000008
- ISSN
- 2364-5903
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-40116-4
- 978-3-319-40118-8
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-40118-8_7
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- ae297744-034a-4f12-8c70-22646b113400
- date added to LUP
- 2016-12-09 10:15:51
- date last changed
- 2025-01-12 17:20:14
@inbook{ae297744-034a-4f12-8c70-22646b113400,
abstract = {{What explains the gender gap in ideology, i.e. the observation that women tend to be more leftist than men? We provide new evidence showing that personality traits play a key role. Using a novel high-quality data set, we show that the mediating (i.e. indirect) effects of gender operating through personality traits by far dominate the direct effects of gender. They also dominate other potential differences between the sexes like income or education as explanatory factors. Our findings suggest that women tend to be more leftist than men mainly because they have different personalities, which, in turn, shape their expressed ideology. Taking such mediating effects of personality traits into account explains over three quarters of the observed gender gap in general ideological preferences.}},
author = {{Morton, Rebecca and Tyran, Jean-Robert and Wengström, Erik}},
booktitle = {{The Political Economy of Social Choices}},
editor = {{Gallego, Maria and Schofield, Norman}},
isbn = {{978-3-319-40116-4}},
issn = {{2364-5903}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{153--185}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Studies in Political Economy}},
title = {{Personality Traits and the Gender Gap in Ideology}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40118-8_7}},
doi = {{10.1007/978-3-319-40118-8_7}},
year = {{2016}},
}