Personality, Ideology, and Attitudes Toward Social Justice.

Abstract

Objective: The importance of diversity, inclusiveness, and social justice has been increasingly emphasized in different institutions and organizations around the world. The present research adopted an individual differences approach to understanding people's attitudes toward diversity and social justice.

Method: Across three studies (Ns ranging from 371 to 700), participants completed measures of Big Five personality traits, political ideology, and attitudes toward a range of social justice issues (diversity, LGBTQ+, racial relations, abortion).

Results: Higher Openness to Experience and Agreeableness emerged as the most consistent predictors of higher support for social justice. Higher Neuroticism and lower Conscientiousness also predicted support for social justice issues. Furthermore, consistent with the dual-process model of ideology, we found that right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation tended to predict social justice support above and beyond Openness to Experience and Agreeableness.

Conclusion: This work provides important insights into the personality predictors of social justice support.