The roles of personality traits and perceived threat in the attitudes of Israelis toward peace with the Palestinians

The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations between personality traits (i.e., honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and spitefulness) and the attitudes of Israelis toward peace with the Palestinians in a sample of 2631 Israeli community members. The possibility that the associations between personality traits and attitudes toward peace with the Palestinians would be moderated by the extent to which Israelis viewed the Palestinians as a potential threat to their safety and security was also examined. The results revealed that the perceived threat posed by the Palestinians moderated the associations that certain personality traits (i.e., openness, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) had with the negative attitudes of Israelis toward peace with the Palestinians. For example, low levels of openness and high levels of psychopathy were associated with relatively negative attitudes toward peace with the Palestinians even when the perceived threat posed by the Palestinians was believed to be relatively low. These results are consistent with the broader perspective that personality traits tend to have stronger associations with outcomes when situational forces are relatively weak.