Personality, Trust and Beliefs in People’s Attitudes toward EU Membership
Session
Political Science
Description
Whereas the role of personality traits, trust and beliefs have long been argued to impact people’s political attitudes, only recently have scholars of EU integration have begun taking them into considerations while trying to explain those attitudes. We try to explain such attitudes using as key independent variables two core characteristic, Optimism and Extraversion, and two surface characteristics, trust in politicians and beliefs about human nature. Our finding would be important in both filling literature gaps in this topic, but also to help politicians take into account such individual features when they both read public opinions related to attitudes toward the EU, and when they tailor policies aimed at deepening and widening the Union. We found evidence that Optimism, trust in politicians and beliefs that humans are inherently good positively impact people’s support for EU membership. However, we were not able to find evidence that Extraversion plays any role in such attitudes. We test our hypotheses with multilevel regression analysis of public opinion data gathered in Albania and Kosovo in 2017.
Keywords:
Personality, Trust, Beliefs, EU integration
Session Chair
Lulzim Peci
Session Co-Chair
Labinot Greiçevci & Ylber Sela
Proceedings Editor
Edmond Hajrizi
ISBN
978-9951-437-69-1
Location
Pristina, Kosovo
Start Date
27-10-2018 1:30 PM
End Date
27-10-2018 3:00 PM
DOI
10.33107/ubt-ic.2018.403
Recommended Citation
Peshkopia, Ridvan; Arifi, Ardit; and Sheqiri, Gresa, "Personality, Trust and Beliefs in People’s Attitudes toward EU Membership" (2018). UBT International Conference. 403.
https://knowledgecenter.ubt-uni.net/conference/2018/all-events/403
Personality, Trust and Beliefs in People’s Attitudes toward EU Membership
Pristina, Kosovo
Whereas the role of personality traits, trust and beliefs have long been argued to impact people’s political attitudes, only recently have scholars of EU integration have begun taking them into considerations while trying to explain those attitudes. We try to explain such attitudes using as key independent variables two core characteristic, Optimism and Extraversion, and two surface characteristics, trust in politicians and beliefs about human nature. Our finding would be important in both filling literature gaps in this topic, but also to help politicians take into account such individual features when they both read public opinions related to attitudes toward the EU, and when they tailor policies aimed at deepening and widening the Union. We found evidence that Optimism, trust in politicians and beliefs that humans are inherently good positively impact people’s support for EU membership. However, we were not able to find evidence that Extraversion plays any role in such attitudes. We test our hypotheses with multilevel regression analysis of public opinion data gathered in Albania and Kosovo in 2017.