Unexpected Combination: Personality Traits and Motivating Factors for Human Rights Protest Participation in South Korea

Abstract

Why do some individuals participate in human rights protests while others do not? This paper argues that motivating factors and personality traits must simultaneously exist for protest participation. Liberal ideology or human rights knowledge motivates individuals to participate in human rights protests. Extraversion or openness to experience among personality traits transforms the motivations into an actual behavior (i.e. protest participation). This argument draws from both contentious politics and political psychology. Data from the 2011 Korean General Social Survey (KGSS) provides empirical support for the claim that an individual who has a liberal ideology or human rights knowledge is more likely to participate in human rights protests when the individual is open to experience or extraverted.