Personality Traits and Voter Turnout in South Korea: The Mediation Argument

This study examines the effects of personality traits on voter turnout in South Korea. While it has been demonstrated that no direct relationships exist between personality traits and voter participation in South Korea, we argue that personality traits have indirect effects on turnout through such attitudinal factors as political interest, political efficacy, partisanship, and ideology. Using data from Korean General Social Survey (KGSS) 2012, we find that political interest and political efficacy play an important role in mediating the relationships between personality traits and voter turnout in South Korea. However, contrary to our expectations, there is either weak or no evidence on the mediating role of partisanship and ideology in the relationships between personality traits and voter turnout. To sum up, our findings provide some support to the indirect relationships between personality traits and voter turnout in South Korea and imply that the impacts of personality traits on voter participation vary by country or geographic region.