Meta-analyses show that low levels of Openness and Agreeableness correlate with generalized prejudice. However, previous studies narrowly assessed prejudice toward low-status, disadvantaged groups. Using a broad operationalization of generalized prejudice toward a heterogeneous array of targets, we sought to answer two questions: (a) Are some types of people prejudiced against most types of groups? and (b) Are some types of people prejudiced against certain types of groups? Across four samples ( N = 7,543), Openness was very weakly related to broad generalized prejudice, r = −.03, 95% confidence interval (CI) [−.07, −.001], whereas low Agreeableness was reliably associated with broad generalized prejudice, r = −.23, 95% CI [−.31, −.16]. When target characteristics moderated relationships between Big Five traits and prejudice, they implied that perceiver–target dissimilarity on personality traits explains prejudice. Importantly, the relationship between Agreeableness and prejudice remained robust across target groups, suggesting it is the personality trait orienting people toward (dis)liking of others.

References

Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., Sanford, R. N. ( 1950 ). The authoritarian personality. New York, NY : Harper & Row .

Google Scholar

Akrami, N., Ekehammar, B., Bergh, R. ( 2011 ). Generalized prejudice: Common and specific components . Psychological Science, 22, 57 - 59 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Akrami, N., Ekehammar, B., Bergh, R., Dahlstrand, E., Malmsten, S. ( 2009 ). Prejudice: The person in the situation . Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 89 - 897 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Allport, G. W. ( 1954 ). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley .

Google Scholar

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Akert, R. M. ( 2010 ). Social psychology ( 7th ed. ). New York, NY : Prentice Hall .

Google Scholar

Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., de Vries, R. ( 2014 ). The HEXACO honesty-humility, agreeableness, and emotionality factors: A review of research and theory . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18, 139 - 152 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Bergh, R., Akrami, N., Ekehammar, B. ( 2012 ). The personality underpinnings of explicit and implicit generalized prejudice . Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3, 614 - 621 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Bergh, R., Akrami, N., Sidanius, J., Sibley, S. ( 2016 ). Is group membership necessary for understanding generalized prejudice? A re-evaluation of why prejudices are interrelated . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 367 - 395 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline

Brandt, M. J. ( 2017 ). Predicting ideological prejudice . Psychological Science, 28, 712 - 722 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals

Brandt, M. J., Chambers, J. R., Crawford, J. T., Wetherell, G., Reyna, C. ( 2015 ). Bounded openness: The effect of openness to experience on intolerance is moderated by target group conventionality . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109, 549 - 568 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Brandt, M. J., Crawford, J. T. ( 2016 ). Answering unresolved questions about the relationship between cognitive ability and prejudice . Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7, 884 - 892 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Brandt, M. J., Proulx, T. ( 2016 ). Conceptual creep as a human (and scientific) goal . Psychological Inquiry, 27, 18 - 23 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Brandt, M. J., Reyna, C., Chambers, J., Crawford, J., Wetherell, G. ( 2014 ). The ideological-conflict hypothesis: Intolerance among both liberals and conservatives . Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 27 - 34 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Brown, R. ( 2010 ). Prejudice: Its social psychology ( 2nd ed. ). Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell .

Google Scholar

Byrne, D. ( 1969 ). Attitudes and attraction . In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 35 - 89 ). New York, NY : Academic Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Chambers, J. R., Schlenker, B. R., Collisson, B. ( 2013 ). Ideology and prejudice: The role of value conflicts . Psychological Science, 24, 140 - 149 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Correll, J., Judd, C. M., Park, B., Wittenbrink, B. ( 2010 ). Measuring prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination . In Dovidio, J. F., Hewstone, M., Glick, P., Esses, V. M. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination (pp. 45 - 62 ). Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE .

Google Scholar Crossref

Costa, P. T., McCrae, R. R. ( 1985 ). The NEO personality inventory manual. Odessa, FL : Psychological Assessment Resources .

Google Scholar

Crandall, C. S., Eshleman, A., O’Brien, L. ( 2002 ). Social norms and the expression and suppression of prejudice: The struggle for internalization . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 359 - 378 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Crawford, J. T., Brandt, M. J., Inbar, Y., Chambers, J. R., Motyl, M. ( 2017 ). Social and economic ideologies differentially predict prejudice across the political spectrum, but social issues are most divisive . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112, 383 - 412 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline

Crawford, J. T., Pilanski, J. M. ( 2014 ). Political intolerance, right and left . Political Psychology, 35, 841 - 851 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Cuddy, A. J., Fiske, S. T., Glick, P. ( 2008 ). Warmth and competence as universal dimensions of social perception: The stereotype content model and the BIAS map . Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 61 - 149 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Duckitt, J., Sibley, C. G. ( 2007 ). Right wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation and the dimensions of generalized prejudice . European Journal of Personality, 21, 113 - 130 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Ekehammar, B., Akrami, N. ( 2003 ). The relation between personality and prejudice: A variable- and a person-centred approach . European Journal of Personality, 17, 449 - 464 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Ekehammar, B., Akrami, N. ( 2007 ). Personality and prejudice: From Big Five personality factors to facets . Journal of Personality, 75, 899 - 926 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Ekehammar, B., Akrami, N., Gylje, M., Zakrisson, I. ( 2004 ). What matters most to prejudice: Big Five personality, social dominance orientation, or right-wing authoritarianism? European Journal of Personality, 18, 463 - 482 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Fatke, M. ( 2017 ). Personality traits and political ideology: A first global assessment . Political Psychology, 38, 881 - 899 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., Glick, P., Xu, J. ( 2002 ). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 878 - 902 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Flynn, F. J. ( 2005 ). Having an open mind: The impact of openness to experience on interracial attitudes and impression formation . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 816 - 826 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., Swann, W. B. ( 2003 ). A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains . Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504 - 528 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Gray, H. M., Gray, K., Wegner, D. M. ( 2007 ). Dimensions of mind perception . Science, 315, 619 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Graziano, W. G., Bruce, J., Sheese, B. E., Tobin, R. M. ( 2007 ). Attraction, personality, and prejudice: Liking none of the people most of the time . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 565 - 582 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline

Hirsh, J. B., DeYoung, C. G., Xu, X., Peterson, J. B. ( 2010 ). Compassionate liberals and polite conservatives: Associations of agreeableness with political ideology and moral values . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 655 - 664 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Hodson, G., Dhont, K. ( 2015 ). The person-based nature of prejudice: Individual difference predictors of intergroup negativity . European Review of Social Psychology, 26, 1 - 42 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Jayaratne, T. E., Ybarra, O., Sheldon, J. P., Brown, T. N., Feldbaum, M., Pfeffer, C. A., Petty, E. M. ( 2006 ). White Americans’ genetic lay theories of race differences and sexual orientation: Their relationship with prejudice toward blacks, and gay men and lesbians . Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 9, 77 - 94 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

John, O. P., Srivastava, S. ( 1999 ). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives . In Pervin, L. A., John, O. P. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research ( 2nd ed. , pp. 102 - 138 ). New York, NY : Guilford Press .

Google Scholar

Kammrath, L. K., Scholer, A. A. ( 2011 ). The Pollyanna myth: How highly agreeable people judge positive and negative relational acts . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1172 - 1184 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Keller, J. ( 2005 ). In genes we trust: The biological component of psychological essentialism and its relationship to mechanisms of motivated social cognition . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 686 - 702 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Koch, A., Imhoff, R., Dotsch, R., Unkelbach, C., Alves, H. ( 2016 ). The ABC of stereotypes about groups: Agency/socioeconomic success, conservative-progressive beliefs, and communion . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110, 675 - 709 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Marcus, G. E., Sullivan, J. L., Theiss-Morse, E., Wood, S. L. ( 1995 ). With malice toward some: How people make civil liberties judgments. New York, NY : Cambridge University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Parks-Leduc, L., Feldman, G., Bardi, A. ( 2015 ). Personality traits and personal values: A meta-analysis . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 19, 3 - 29 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Sibley, C. G., Duckitt, J. ( 2008 ). Personality and prejudice: A meta-analysis and theoretical review . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12, 248 - 279 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Suhay, E., Brandt, M. J., Proulx, T. ( 2017 ). Lay belief in biopolitics and political prejudice . Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8, 173 - 182 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Van Hiel, A., Mervielde, I. ( 2004 ). Openness to experience and boundaries in the mind: Relationships with cultural and economic conservative beliefs . Journal of Personality, 72, 659 - 686 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Viechtbauer, W. ( 2010 ). Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package . Journal of Statistical Software, 36, 1 - 48 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Weiner, B. ( 1995 ). Judgments of responsibility: A foundation for a theory of social conduct. New York, NY : Guilford Press .

Google Scholar

Weiner, B., Perry, R. P., Magnusson, J. ( 1988 ). An attributional analysis of reactions to stigmas . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 738 - 748 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Wetherell, G., Brandt, M. J., Reyna, C. ( 2013 ). Discrimination across the ideological divide: The role of value violations and abstract values in discrimination by liberals and conservatives . Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4, 658 - 667 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI