Attraction, personality, and prejudice: Liking none of the people most of the time.

Abstract

Unfavorable evaluations of others reflect both specific prejudice and generalized negativity. Study 1 examined self-reported norms and personal endorsement of prejudices to various social groups. Study 2 used judgments of overweight persons to examine links among prejudice, personality, and prosocial motives. Study 3 examined negative evaluations and social distancing during interpersonal interaction. Study 4 observed the translation of negative evaluations into overt discrimination. Study 5 experimentally manipulated the behavior of the target and observed its interactive effects with weight, personality, and prosocial motives. Results suggest that prejudice can emerge from otherwise unprejudiced persons when situations permit justification. Patterns in negative evaluations are linked distinctively to (a) the Big Five dimension of Agreeableness, (b) proximal social cognition and motives, and (c) discrimination.

Agreeable Authoritarians: Personality and Politics in Contemporary Russia

“…On social issues, once again agreeableness plays the biggest role in shaping views on each issue, but the effect is not in the direction of tolerance. Instead, consistent with experimental studies on agreeableness (Graziano et al 2007;567), in a context where the media are 27 aggressively pushing anti-gay legislation (Models 3 and 4) and where anti-immigrant attitudes are common (73 percent of respondents showed some support for deporting immigrants), more agreeable people are more likely to share intolerant attitudes (Models 5 and 6). More agreeable people are also more likely to support a strong military and police, even if it means trading off freedom (Models 7 and 8).…”

“…Similarly, JensenCampbell and Graziano (2001) find that highly agreeable people process conflict differently, generating positive perceptions of what less agreeable people see as provocative behaviors (Jensen-Campbell and Graziano 2001). In looking at the relationship between agreeableness and social prejudices, Graziano et al (2007) find that the pro-social desire to "get on" of agreeable people makes them act in less prejudiced ways and exhibit less racial bias. However, there is 8 evidence that this result derives more from an effort on the part of agreeable people to "suppress normatively inappropriate prejudices" rather than from simply being less prejudiced.…”

“…However, there is 8 evidence that this result derives more from an effort on the part of agreeable people to "suppress normatively inappropriate prejudices" rather than from simply being less prejudiced. The authors attribute lower levels of behavioral prejudice to the ability "to deploy attention strategically and to engage in positive interpersonal behaviors in the face of frustration" (Graziano et al 2007;567) and find that highly agreeable people exhibit prejudice when given permission to do so by the context (Graziano et al 2007). …”

Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships across Issue Domains and Political Contexts

“…Agreeable individuals are "prosocial and communal in orientation," and can be characterized by more specific facets such as "altruism, tender-mindedness, trust, and modesty" (John and Srivastava 1999, 121). This trait may incline individuals to respond positively to liberal economic policies because they see them as a means to help others (see Graziano et al 2007). Agreeable individuals may respond positively to liberal social policies for similar reasons.…”

Perceiver effects as projective tests: What your perceptions of others say about you.

“…For instance, there are indications that agreeable individuals describe others more positively on a range of traits beyond simply agreeableness; agreeableness has been related to lower levels of prejudice toward a wide range of groups (Graziano, Bruce, Sheese, & Tobin, 2007) and to both the perceived agreeableness and extraversion of others (Graziano & Tobin, 2002; other Big Five traits were not measured). We suspect that there are many divergent or nonparallel relationships that may exist between self-ratings and perceiver effects (e.g., self-rated extraversion and perceived agreeableness of others), many of which may match or even exceed the magnitude of assumed similarity correlations.…”