What Motivates Lay Third Parties to Take Sides in a Conflict? Impact of the Big Five Personality Traits on Side-taking Motives

Yang, H.D., Li, C.P.,Wang, Q.,Hendriks, A. A.

Taking sides is one of the reactions available to third parties in handling a dispute. From the perspective of individual differences, this study was aimed at identifying lay third parties’motives for side-taking and exploring their relations with the Big Five personality traits. We tested our assumptions using three samples: a Dutch student sample (n = 111), a Dutch employee sample (n = 101), and a Chinese student sample (n = 124). The findings revealed four types of side-taking motives: moral, relational, reward-approaching, and sanctionavoiding motives. The results also showed that individuals’ personality traits were relevant to the four types of side-taking motives: Agreeableness was associated with the relational motive for side-taking, and Intellectual Autonomy was associated with the reward-approaching motive, the sanction-avoiding motive, and the relational motive for side-taking. Implications and explanations of these findings are discussed.

Source: Yang, H.D., Li, C.P.,Wang, Q.,Hendriks, A. A.,  What Motivates Lay Third Parties to Take Sides in a Conflict? Impact of the Big Five Personality Traits on Side-taking Motives, European Journal of Personality (SSCI，影响因子：2.31) (Accepted)