Stewart J. H. McCann

Societal Threat, Authoritarianism, Conservatism, and U.S. State Death Penalty Sentencing (1977-2004)

On the basis of K. Stenners (2005) authoritarian dynamic theory, it was hypothesized that the number of death sentences and executions would be higher in more threatened conservative states than in less threatened conservative states, and would be lower in more threatened liberal states than in less threatened liberal states. Threat was based on state homicide rate, violent crime rate, and non-White percentage of population. Conservatism was based on state voter ideological identification, Democratic and Republican Party elite liberalism-conservatism, policy liberalism-conservatism, religious fundamentalism, degree of economic freedom, and 2004 presidential election results. For 1977-2004, with controls for state population and years with a death penalty provision, the interactive hypothesis received consistent support using the state conservatism composite and voter ideological identification alone. As well, state conservatism was related to death penalties and executions, but state threat was not. The temporal stability of the findings was demonstrated with a split-half internal replication using the periods 1977-1990 and 1991-2004. The interactive hypothesis and the results also are discussed in the context of other threat-authoritarianism theories and terror management theory.

Sex differences, social desirability, masculinity, and the tendency to worry.

Relationships between worry and sex differences, social desirability, masculinity, and femininity were explored in this study. Data were obtained from 141 undergraduates who answered a questionnaire containing a worry scale, the Crowne-Marlowe (1964) Social Desirability Scale, the Bem (1974) Sex Role Inventory, the Trait Anxiety scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970), and several demographic items. Women reported significantly higher levels of worry than men did, and worry was significantly correlated with lower social desirability and with lower masculinity but not with femininity. However, multiple regression strategies revealed that sex differences in reported worry cannot be accounted for solely by variations in social desirability and masculinity. Also, sex differences in the tendency to worry were not eliminated by statistically controlling for trait anxiety, social desirability, and masculinity simultaneously.

HEIGHT, SOCIETAL THREAT, AND THE VICTORY MARGIN IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS (1824-1992)

Based on the idea that height serves as a heuristic for judgments about status, dominance, and leadership potential, two hypotheses were tested: (1) Heights of U.S. presidential election winners are positively correlated with estimates of social, economic, and political threat in election years. (2) Height and victory margin are positively correlated regardless of the magnitude of estimates of social, economic, and political threat in election years. Both hypotheses were supported for the 43 elections from 1824 to 1992.

Subjective well-being, personality, demographic variables, and American state differences in smoking prevalence

INTRODUCTION The present study was conducted to determine relations between smoking prevalence, subjective well-being, and the Big Five personality variables at the American state level. METHOD State smoking prevalence was based on the responses of more than 350,000 adults interviewed in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2008. Subjective well-being was based on the state-aggregated responses of 353,039 adults to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index phone interviews during 2008. Big Five variables were based on the state-aggregated responses of 619,397 persons to an Internet survey between 1999 and 2005, which included the 44-item Big Five Inventory. RESULTS Well-being and smoking prevalence were negatively correlated and remained so when state Big Five, socioeconomic status (SES), White population percent, urban population percent, and median age were controlled in a partial correlation. Hierarchical and stepwise multiple regressions showed (a) that SES and neuroticism were the prime predictors of well-being, (b) that well-being was the prime predictor of smoking prevalence, and (c) that openness to experience was the sole personality or demographic variable to account for differences in smoking prevalence when well-being was controlled, and it explained very little of the remaining variance. DISCUSSION Applied implications for state-tailored attempts to reduce smoking are briefly discussed, and suggestions for future research directions are put forward.

Suicide, Big Five Personality Factors, and Depression at the American State Level

The research determined the relation of the 2004–2005 American state suicide rates to state means on neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness as assessed by Rentfrow, Gosling, and Potter (2008). Multiple regression strategies were used to analyze relations between state suicide rates and state personality means with state socioeconomic status, White population percent, urban population percent, and depression rates controlled. Multiple regression analysis showed that neuroticism accounted for 32.0% and agreeableness another 16.3% of the variance in suicide rates when demographics and depression were controlled. Lower neuroticism and lower agreeableness were associated with higher suicide rates. Lower neuroticism and lower agreeableness may be important risk factors for completed suicide but not suicidal ideation or attempted suicide.

Threat, Authoritarianism, and the Power of U.S. Presidents

Abstract Threat results in higher authoritarianism and one aspect of authoritarianism is the tendency to identify with powerful figures. The present study was concerned with the possible interrelationships of the power motives of U.S. presidents; the degree of social, political, and economic threat evident prior to presidential elections; and the percentage of the popular vote obtained by presidents. We hypothesized that the power of presidents from Coolidge to Reagan would be positively correlated with indices of threat including the unemployment rate, changes in the GNP, the consumer price index, car registrations, and work stoppages, as well as subjective annual threat ratings of historians and social critics. All correlations were in the expected direction and most attained in acceptable significance level. A corollary hypothesis—if the power of the presidential election winner is discrepant from the degree of prevailing threat, the percentage of the popular vote he receives may be low—also gained som...

Longevity, Big Five Personality Factors, and Health Behaviors: Presidents From Washington to Nixon

In this study, the positive correlation between conscientiousness and death age discovered by H. S. Friedman et al. (1993, 1995) was replicated for 32 American presidents. Conscientiousness scores, using the Big Five variables produced by S. J. Rubenzer, T. R. Faschingbauer, and D. S. Ones (1996, 2000), were correlated with death age, r(30) = .41, p < .01, and the relationship was maintained with controls in a multiple regression framework. Smoking, drinking, and exercise, as assessed by J. R. Bumgarner (1994), were also correlated in the expected fashion with death age. Conscientiousness was correlated negatively with smoking and drinking, but openness to experience was correlated negatively with smoking and drinking to a higher degree and also was positively correlated with exercise. Openness, extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness were not correlated with death age, and extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness were not correlated with smoking, drinking or exercise.

Personality and American State Differences in Obesity Prevalence

ABSTRACT The study was conducted to determine whether state obesity-prevalence rates can be predicted by state differences in residents’ levels on the Big Five personality variables (O. P. John & S. Srivastava, 1999). State obesity prevalence was the mean percentage of the state population from 2000 to 2005 with a body mass index ≥ 30.0 as assessed by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010), which currently interviews more than 350,000 adults annually. State neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness z scores, based on the responses of 619,397 residents to an Internet survey from 1999 to 2005, were taken from P. J. Rentfrow, S. D. Gosling, and J. Potter (2008). Alaska, Hawaii, and North Dakota had scores outside −3 and +3 standard deviations on at least 1 variable and were excluded as outliers. For the 47 remaining states, state obesity prevalence was significantly correlated with neuroticism (.35), agreeableness (.38), openness (−.44), socioeconomic status (−.74), white percentage (−.34), and urbanization (−.43). Multiple regression analysis showed that socioeconomic status could account for 54.0% of the criterion variance and that agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness together could account for another 17.1%.

Political Conservatism, Authoritarianism, and Societal Threat: Voting for Republican Representatives in U.S. Congressional Elections From 1946 to 1992

The author found that the degree of national societal threat preceding congressional elections from 1946 to 1992 was positively associated with the mean state percentage of people voting for Republican representatives, supporting a conventional threat-authoritarianism hypothesis. However, threat was positively associated with the mean state percentage of people voting for Republican representatives in conservative states but not in liberal states, and the conventional threat-authoritarianism link was entirely driven by the relation in conservative states. The author classified states with a composite measure (α = .92) on the basis of state ideological identification, religious fundamentalism, composite policy liberalism, Republican Party elite ideology, and Democratic Party elite ideology. These results offer support to an interactive threat-authoritarianism hypothesis derived from the authoritarian dynamic theory of K. Stenner (2005), which postulates that only authoritarian persons are activated to manifest authoritarian behavior in times of normative threat. Also, the author discusses potential alternative explanations on the basis of system justification, need for closure, and terror-management theories.

Authoritarianism, Conservatism, Racial Diversity Threat, and the State Distribution of Hate Groups

ABSTRACT On the basis of K. Stenners (2005) authoritarian dynamic theory, the author hypothesized that there is an interaction between U.S. state conservatism–liberalism and state racial heterogeneity threat, such that greater diversity threat tends to be associated with more hate groups in more conservative states and fewer hate groups in more liberal states. State aggregates of the conservative–liberal ideological preferences of 141,798 participants from 122 CBS News/New York Times national telephone polls conducted between 1976 and 1988 (R. S. Erikson, G. C. Wright, & J. P. McIver, 1993) served as proxies for authoritarian–nonauthoritarian dispositions. For the 47 states with complete data, the hypothesized interaction was tested for 2000, 2005, and 2006 with hierarchical multiple regression strategies and supported. The authors hypothesis was also affirmed with SES and the interaction of SES and diversity threat controlled for. In contrast, SES entirely accounted for simple relationships between threat and hate group frequency.