TY - CHAP
T1 - Personality Traits and the Gender Gap in Ideology
AU - Morton, Rebecca
AU - Tyran, Jean-Robert Karl
AU - Wengström, Erik Roland
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-40118-8_7
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-40118-8_7
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 978-3-319-40116-4
T3 - Studies in Political Economy
SP - 153
EP - 185
BT - The Political Economy of Social Choices
PB - Springer
ER -
