The role of personality traits and political trust in people’s attitudes toward EU membership

ABSTRACT

Whereas the role of personality traits and political trust have long been argued to impact people’s political attitudes, only recently have scholars of the European Union (EU) integration begun to take them into consideration while trying to explain people’s attitudes toward the EU. In an effort to explain the support for EU membership among citizens of Albania and Kosovo, we build a series of ordered probit models using as key independent variables two core personality characteristics, self-reported Optimism and Extraversion, and one surface characteristic, political trust. We found evidence that Optimism, Extraversion, trust in EU politicians and the judiciary, as well as trust in domestic politicians positively impact people’s support for EU membership. However, we found no evidence that people’s trust in the domestic judiciary associates their attitudes toward EU membership. We tested our hypotheses with a probability simple sample of public opinion data gathered in Albania and Kosovo in 2017.

KEYWORDS:

• Personality traits
• support for EU membership
• political trust
• public opinion
• former communist Balkans

Acknowledgment

We presented an earlier version of this article at the 5th annual ICPSIR, October 2018, Kosovo. We are grateful to discussants of our panel, its chair Lulzim Peci as well as our colleagues Artan Mustafa and Alfred Marleku for their comments and encouragement. Also, we thank our following colleagues, who helped with collecting the data: Teuta Agushi, Liri Kosovare Bllaca, Kujtim Bytyqi, Eranda Deliu, Agnesa Devqa, Donjeta Elshani, Saranda Fazliu, Gojarta Grainca, Erza Kqiku, Valëza Mjeku, Pylljon Nura, Arbenita Qeriqi, Elena Qerimi, Valdet Rexhepi, Mërgim Rrecaj, Shkelzen Musliu, Samire Sadiku, Elona Sahiti, Elma Salihu, Blertë Sopa, Erza Salihu, Flandra Shala, Leonora Shala, Doan Tahirbegolli, Alisa Thaqi, Anduena Zeka and Antoneta Zhjeçi. A special gratitude goes to Eno Minka with the Vodafone Albania, who helped with resolving technical issues emerging with cell phone calls in Albania. The responsibility for any lingering errors and misconceptions rests with the authors.