Are political party members psychopaths? New data from the Party Members Project

For the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts I talked with Paul Webb about the report "Britain's Party Members" which has new data on who joins political parties in Britain and what they get up to.

Are Lib Dems the keenest campaigners? Is the emerging two-bloc pattern of British politics reflected in party membership? We talk about these and many more such illuminating questions, revealing some of the basic bedrock on which British politics is built.

Our discussion also includes the report's analysis of political psychology, based on both the big five traits and the dark triad models - showing differences between parties, and we explore how member preferences shape leadership selection, tactical voting, and party strategy.

We start off though with where the data comes from and how much we can trust to it being right.

Show notes

Britain's Party Members by Tim Bale, Paul Webb and Stavroula Chrona.

The excellent book that came from the project's earlier work.

The ESRC Party Members Project website.

How Cambridge Analytica's impact was hyped.

Robert McKenzie and the election night swingometer.

Only 2% of council by-elections turning out to be Conservative-Labour contests.

Professor Paul Webb's other work.