Personality Traits and Individual Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage: Evidence from Taiwan

Abstract

While same-sex marriage has been a particularly salient issue in recent years in Taiwan, few scholarly attentions have been paid to examine the determinants of individual attitudes toward same-sex marriage. This study attempts to understand how personality influences individual support for same-sex marriage in Taiwan. Using the original data collected in July 2017 in Taiwan, this study finds that people with higher levels of agreeableness are more likely to oppose same-sex marriage. Besides, conscientiousness and openness to experience have heterogeneous effects on individual attitudes toward same-sex marriage for people of different ages. Specifically, a higher level of conscientiousness is positively associated with support for same-sex marriage among younger people but is negatively correlated with support for same-sex marriage among older people. Similarly, a higher level of openness to experience would lead to increased support for same-sex marriage for younger people but would result in decreased support for same-sex marriage for older people. Overall, our findings indicate that personality can provide some explanatory power for individual attitudes toward homosexual rights.