To test the assumed causal relationship between personality traits and political attitudes, we first highlight the critical findings that both underscore and challenge the causal assumption.
These models allow us to examine whether the relationship is best accounted for by common genetic or environmental influences shared between the two phenotypes (e.g., Verhulst, Hatemi, and Martin 2010) or whether a causal relationship exists between personality and political attitudes (e.g., Heath et al. The recent introduction of behavioral genetic models plays a pivotal role in expanding our understanding of the nature of the relationship between personality traits and political attitudes. In light of these empirical inconsistencies, it is important to reconsider this basic assumption to gain a more accurate understanding of the complex interplay between an individual's disposition and their political attitudes. These findings cast doubt on the critical foundations necessary for the assumed causal structure expounded throughout the extant literature (e.g., Gerber et al.
Furthermore, the relationship between personality traits and political attitudes has been found to be largely a function of latent shared genetic influences ( Eaves and Eysenck 1974 Verhulst, Hatemi, and Martin 2010). Recent scholarship, however, has demonstrated that political attitudes develop much earlier than previously suspected ( Block and Block 2006 Hess and Torney 1967), the precursors of which are present prior to a child's first year in school ( Persson 2010) and are also influenced by genetic factors ( Alford, Funk, and Hibbing 2005 Eaves, Eysenck, and Martin 1989 Hatemi et al. 2000), whereas political attitudes develop in adulthood, has led to the assumption that personality traits cause the subsequent development of political attitudes. 1999 Eysenck 1967 Loehlin 1992 McRae et al. The belief that personality traits are innate, genetically influenced, and develop in infancy ( Bouchard et al. 2003 Mondak and Halperin 2008 Mondak et al. The field of political science is witnessing a renaissance in the exploration of the relationship between personality traits and political preferences ( Gerber et al. The results suggest that personality traits do not cause people to develop political attitudes rather, the correlation between the two is a function of an innate common underlying genetic factor. Here we test the causal relationship between personality traits and political attitudes using a direction of causation structural model on a genetically informative sample. These findings cast doubt on the assumed causal relationship between personality and politics. Work in psychology, behavioral genetics, and recently political science, however, has demonstrated that political preferences also develop in childhood and are equally influenced by genetic factors. This assumption is founded on the simple correlation between the two constructs and the observation that personality traits are genetically influenced and develop in infancy, whereas political preferences develop later in life. The assumption in the personality and politics literature is that a person's personality motivates them to develop certain political attitudes later in life.
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