The Personality and Politics of Cryptocurrency Investors

• Published date: 01 May 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X231220653
• Author: Grant Ferguson,Kathryn Haglin,Soren Jordan
• Date: 01 May 2024

Article

American Politics Research

2024, Vol. 52(3) 290–305

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X231220653

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The Personality and Politics of

Cryptocurrency Investors

Grant Ferguson

1

, Kathryn Haglin

2

, and Soren Jordan

3



Abstract

Investing in cryptocurrency has become more popular among Americans. Despite this, politicians and social scientists know

almost nothing about the politics of cryptocurrency in the American public. By analyzing an original, nationally representative

survey of 2500 American respondents, we create the f‌irst robust prof‌ile of the personalities, demographics, and political

attitudes of cryptocurrency owners. We show that Americans who report hardship from inf‌lation are more likelyto own

cryptocurrency, suggesting that when inf‌lation is high, Americans may be more likely to use cryptocurrency as a medium of

exchange and store of value. Americans who favor lower government spending and are more inclined toward conspiratorial

thinking are also more likely to own cryptocurrency. Finally, there is a personality to cryptocurrencyowners, with those open

to new experiences more likely to own it and the conscientious less likely to own it. Our results have implications for how the

American public may use cryptocurrency going forward.

Keywords

cryptocurrency, public opinion, personality, politics

Introduction

In the last several years, investing in cryptocurrency has

become more popular among Americans. Everyday Ameri-

cans use it to purchase goods and services, professional

athletes earn portions of their salaries in it, and celebrities

receive lots of media attention for backing new forms of

cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is an increasingly normal-

ized part of American society. Estimates vary, but data from

the Pew Research Center suggest that about one in every six

or seven Americans currently owns cryptocurrency or has

owned it in the past.

1

Owning cryptocurrency has become

such a common form of investment for Americans that in

2021, legislators in Congress introduced almost three dozen

bills about cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a potential rival

to government-controlled f‌iat currencies like the dollar, and

Congress has paid an increasing amount of attention to how to

incorporate it into American law, markets, and taxation.

There is a bipartisan, 32-member Congressional Blockchain

Caucus that is in part focused on its promotion.

Despite the prominence of cryptocurrency in American

society and government, social scientists know almost

nothing about the personality or politics of cryptocurrency

owners in the American public. This is remarkable because a

central idea of Bitcoin, the world’sf‌irst and most valuable

cryptocurrency, is limiting government’s monopoly control

over currency due to lack of trust in government’s

management of economic and monetary policy (Ammous,

2018). Popular discourse on cryptocurrency owners notes

their distinctiveness in personality, demographics (young

men especially), and issue preferences, but provides little

hard evidence for these claims. On the other hand, the in-

creasingly common ownership of cryptocurrency today

suggests that cryptocurrency owners might be no different

than the average member of society.

Wereme dy this lack of scholarly knowledge by examining

the personalities, demographics, and political attitudes and

perceptions of cryptocurrency owners. Using a nationally

representative survey of 2500 Americans, we address hy-

potheses about cryptocurrency owners that have not been

tested or have been tested only in small convenience samples.

We f‌ind that Americans who own cryptocurrency are a large

group, have distinct personalities, and do not ref‌lect existing

ideological coalitions. Our results provide some insight into

1

Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA

2

University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN, USA

3

Political Science, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Grant Ferguson, Department of Political Science, Texas Christian

University, Scharbauer Hall 2007A, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA.

Email: grant.ferguson@tcu.edu

the effects of inf‌lation and the distinctiveness of the one in

seven people in American society who own cryptocurrency.

Literature Review

The existing work on the prof‌ile of cryptocurrency owners is

sparse. An informal survey of Bitcoin users from 2014 found

that Bitcoin users were overwhelmingly male, about 33 years

old, largely libertarian in political preferences with many left-

wing owners as well, with a slight tendency to purchase illicit

goods (Bohr & Bashir, 2014). Bohr and Bashir (2014) also

found that freedom, weakening the power of a centralized

state, avoiding government control of the money supply, and

government surveillance of transactions were all reasons that

Bitcoin users gave for why they used Bitcoin. More left-wing

Bitcoin users liked it because it insulated them from the

inf‌luence of banks on savings and investment and transac-

tions. However, this informal survey is from 2014, and the

number of cryptocurrency owners has grown dramatically

since then. We are uncertain, at best, if that description still

holds.

Auer and Tercero-Lucas (2022) use 2019 data from the

Survey of Consumer Payment Choice to analyze the de-

mographics of American cryptocurrency owners. Their re-

sults show that cryptocurrency owners are younger and more

likely to be male, but not any more or less wealthy than those

who do not own cryptocurrency. No particular ethnic or racial

group was more likely to own cryptocurrency, but more

educated individuals were more likely to own it. Marital

status did not affect cryptocurrency ownership. The authors

f‌ind that cryptocurrency owners are not concerned about the

security of their money in cash, and state that they “can

disprove the hypothesis that cryptocurrencies are sought as an

alternative to f‌iat currencies or regulated banking”(Auer &

Tercero-Lucas, 2022, p. 21). However, only 1.4% of their

sample actually owned cryptocurrency, which is quite dif-

ferent from current estimates (14%–16%) and suggests their

analysis might not be a good measure of who owns cryp-

tocurrency going forward.

Bonaparte (2022) analyzes cryptocurrency ownership

using Survey of Consumer Finance data from 2018 and

presents evidence showing that cryptocurrency households

view cryptocurrencies as a long-term asset to hold. In his

sample, men, college-educated individuals, those who

identify as white, and those who own stocks are signif‌icantly

more likely to own cryptocurrency. However, only .35% of

American households own cryptocurrency in his sample.

Similar to Auer and Tercero-Lucas (2022), this is different

enough from contemporary estimates that the representa-

tiveness and relevance of these f‌indings for the future is

uncertain.

Overall, there is little research on the personalities, de-

mographics, and politics of cryptocurrency owners. There is

strong reason to believe, though, that a certain type of person

could be attracted to owning this asset. With respect to

personality, two broad clusters of traits are well established in

the discipline: The Big Five and the Dark Triad. Big Five

traits, or Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Ex-

traversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability, are a

powerful representation of an individual’s personality and

have been shown to affect everything from likelihood of

voting (Weinschenk, 2013), culture (Wilmot & Ones, 2022),

and uncertainty avoidance (Varas et al., 2010) to investment

in different types of f‌inancial assets (Aren and Hamamci,

2020), including risky ones (De Bortoli et al., 2019).

The Big Five broadly affect Americans’political behavior

(Mondak, 2010;Mondak et al., 2010;Weinschenk, 2014;

Weinschenk & Panagopoulos, 2014). These traits cover how

excited (or not) an individual is by new opportunities

(Openness to Experience), how much an individual is prone

to organization and self-control versus spur of the moment

activity (Conscientiousness), the pleasure derived from social

interactions with friends and strangers (Extraversion), how

much an individual desires positive relations with others

(Agreeableness), and how much an individual desires man-

aging their environment and their willingness to exert im-

pulse control to achieve it (Emotional Stability). Some work

explores the relationship between these traits and crypto-

currency ownership with evidence for Agreeableness and

Extraversion (Sudzina et al., 2021), but the work is de-

scriptive, leaving the picture far from complete.

More infamous is the Dark Triad: Narcissism, Machia-

vellianism, and Psychopathy (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).

Narcissistic individuals seek to bring attention to themselves,

even at the expense of others. Machiavellian individuals do

not mind manipulating or even lying to others out of self-

interest. Psychopathic individuals tend to act out of impulse,

even at the expense of others, lacking remorse or even being

callous towards the feelings of others. Again, initial de-

scriptive work f‌inds a relationship between all three of these

traits and cryptocurrency ownership (Martin et al., 2022), but

that work relies on a convenience sample.

The Big Five and the Dark Triad might predict crypto-

currency ownership alongside other classic Personality

Traits: Need for Cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982,

Arceneaux & Vander Wielen, 2013) and Need to Evaluate

(Bizer et al., 2000;Federico, 2004;Jarvis & Petty, 1996).

Need for Cognition is a trait that captures the tendency of

individuals to enjoy the process of thinking itself and desire to

know the true state of the world. Arceneaux and Vander

Wielen (2013, 24) note that high Need for Cognition indi-

viduals “are motivated to reason through their evaluations.”

Lin et al. (2006) f‌ind that Need for Cognition “determines the

magnitude of the effect of emotion on risk-taking behavior.”

Therefore, Need for Cognition might affect the likelihood that

someone owns cryptocurrency, which is a risky asset.

Need to Evaluate measures how likely someone is to

quickly form opinions about whether things are good or bad.

Americans high in Need to Evaluate have more opinions than

others, tend to take sides in a conf‌lict, and are more likely to

Ferguson et al.291