Personality Traits and Foreign Policy Attitudes: A Comparative Examination of the United States and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Mass public attitudes toward foreign policy lie at the intersection of international relations and political behaviour. Recently, there has been renewed interest within the broader field of political behaviour in the effects of individual personality differences on mass political behaviour. Research exploring the links between personality traits and foreign policy attitudes, however, is scarce. This paper pursues a set of related questions. Do personality traits influence attitudes toward foreign policy? Do they do so directly, or are their effects mediated by ideology? Are the links between personality traits and foreign policy the same, or do they differ across two national contexts? In pursuing answers to these questions, the paper draws on new data from a series of large-scale public opinion surveys in the United States and the United Kingdom.