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Does the association between openness and political liberalism depend on political sophistication?
There is a great deal of interest in determining how individual differences in personality traits relate to political attitudes and voting behavior. Most research shows that individuals higher in openness to experience are have more liberal attitudes and tend to vote for liberal political candidates. Recent research appearing in the Journal of Research in Personality suggests that this association varies in strength depending upon the individual's levels of education and political knowledge. In two nationally representative data sets from New Zealand and the United States, the openness-liberal link was stronger among people who had achieved higher levels of education and had more sophisticated political knowledge.
Osborne, D., & Sibley, C. G. (2012). Does personality matter? Openness correlates with vote choice, but particularly for politically sophisticated voters. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(6), 743-751. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2012.09.001