The Activist Personality
Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Opposition Activism in Authoritarian Regimes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6246747 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jan Matti Dollbaum (0000-0002-3399-6137, University of Bremen), Graeme B Robertson (0000-0003-1255-218X, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pages | 1695-1723 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Political Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-4140 • E-ISSN: 1552-3829 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00104140231152772 |
| OpenAlex | W4319836389 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 68 |
Why do people become opposition activists in authoritarian regimes where dissent invites social censure and can be dangerous? We make a new contribution to answering this classic question: personality. For the first time outside of democratic contexts, we investigate the association between personality traits and opposition activism, arguing that some traits work universally, while others interact with political context. We propose that—as in democracies—high extraversion predicts political activism, regardless of its pro- or anti-regime orientation, and, in particular, that extraversion is critical to explain the shift from online to offline action. We also argue that—contrary to democratic contexts—low agreeableness predicts opposition activism in autocracies, because it reduces the perceived costs of non-conformity. We test these arguments based on two independent survey samples from Russia, a stable authoritarian regime. In a series of statistical tests, including two case-control designs, we find consistent support for all hypotheses
Agreeableness · Authoritarianism · Big Five personality traits · Democracy · Dissent · Extraversion and introversion · Opposition (politics · Personality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Law · Personality Traits and Psychology · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
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Transforming the World”
System Justification in Authoritarian Regimes
Predictors of online and offline activism in hybrid regime society – Serbian study
Conscious selection
How authoritarianism and extraversion relate to censorship
In the gray zone
Authoritarian indoctrination in Putin’s Russia
Handbook of personality theory and research
Putin v. the People
Personality Trait Change in Adulthood
Agreeableness
Social Media and Protest Participation
The interactive effects of conscientiousness and agreeableness on job performance.
Patterns of Protest
Personality and the Foundations of Political Behavior
From Protest to Parties
Heritability of the Big Five Personality Dimensions and Their Facets
Navalny’s Digital Dissidents
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A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains
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Personality traits and party identification over time
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Autocracies, democracies, and the violation of civil liberties
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Presidential Popularity in a Hybrid Regime
Repression and Activism among the Arab Spring’s First Movers
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Integration of the Big Five and circumplex approaches to trait structure
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The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives
Mobilizing civilians into high-risk forms of violent collective action
Personality and Political Attitudes
The Psychology of State Repression
Personality and Civic Engagement
Reevaluating the Middle-Class Protest Paradigm
Recruitment to High-Risk Activism
High-Risk Collective Action
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |