The correlation between the Big Five personality traits and political information exposure

Abstract

In the era of media convergence, Internet users’ levels of access to current political information are diverse. Based on selective exposure theory, this study employed K-means clustering and multinomial logistic regression and 2017 Chinese National Survey Data Archive data to study the correlation between the Big Five personality traits and political information exposure. The results showed that Internet users can be divided into three types, according to the frequency of their access: comprehensive, domestic modern, and apathetic. Netizens with high extroversion were correlated with regular browsing of current political information from comprehensive accesses. Those with high agreeableness were correlated with a preference for current political information as relayed by domestic modern media. Those with high levels of neuroticism were correlated with paying little attention to current political information.