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ABSTRACT
The rapid evolution of social media has transformed the landscape of political communication, leading to a unique phenomenon where government officials and politicians increasingly adopt the personas of internet celebrities. This trend, referred to as ‘internet sensationalised politics’, focuses on attracting public attention through celebrity-like behaviour online. Despite its growing prevalence, scholarly research on this phenomenon remains limited. This study, therefore, aims to explore the factors shaping individual attitudes towards internet sensationalised politics, with a particular emphasis on the role of personality traits. This study, utilising unique data gathered in Taiwan, reveals a significant relationship between personality traits and individual perceptions of internet sensationalised politics. Specifically, people with higher levels of openness to experience tend to support internet sensationalised politics. Besides, agreeableness and openness to experience drive people to hold a favourable attitude towards the impact of internet celebrity culture on politics. Conscientiousness, however, leads people to have a negative view of the impact of internet celebrity culture on politics. Overall, this study contributes to an enhanced understanding of internet sensationalised politics, highlighting the significance of personality in shaping individual attitudes towards this modern political phenomenon.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The personality traits exhibit alpha reliability scores of 0.764 for extraversion, 0.020 for agreeableness, 0.607 for conscientiousness, 0.539 for emotional stability, and 0.602 for openness to experience. It is noted that the alpha reliability score of agreeableness is much lower than those of the other personality traits. Building upon the Big Five personality measurement employed in previous studies conducted in Taiwan (Tsai, Wang, and Weng Citation2019; Wang et al. Citation2020; Wang, Weng, and Tsai Citation2019), this study does not intend to provide an explanation for the notably low alpha reliability score observed in agreeableness.
2. Some may argue that considering the close relationship between personality traits and ideology, it would be prudent to treat ideology as a control variable in the analysis. However, this study opts not to include ideology as a control variable for two primary reasons. Firstly, the dataset lacks information on ideology. Secondly, Taiwanese people possess a limited understanding of ideology, rendering the application of connections between personality traits and ideology less relevant to them. Additionally, it is worth noting that Taiwan’s political landscape has historically not been defined by a dichotomy of liberal/conservative or left-wing/right-wing ideologies (Wang Citation2021). Therefore, there is no imperative need to control for ideology within the Taiwanese context.
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Ching-Hsing Wang
Ching-Hsing Wang is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. His research interests include research methods, political behaviour, political psychology, public opinion, and Asian politics. He has published in such scholarly journals as Democratization, Electoral Studies, Globalization and Health, International Political Science Review, Party Politics, Social Science Quarterly, The Social Science Journal, and other journals.