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Psychopathic dominance in US presidential election-India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features - Search News

Psychopathic traits at play in US presidential election

     The US presidential election has shown up signs of fearless dominance associated with psychopathy. It might be an important predictor of performance, an analysis in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has revealed. The analysis found that the link between fearless dominance and political performance was linear, Lilienfeld notes, but he added that at the extremes, boldness might veer into a form of recklessness that would be detrimental. Psychopaths generally have fearless social dominance, are self-centered impulsivity, have superficial charm, guiltlessness, callousness, dishonesty and immunity to anxiety. “Certain psychopathic traits may be like a double-edged sword,” lead author Scott Lilienfeld, a psychologist at Emory University , said. “Fearless dominance, for example, may contribute to reckless criminality and violence, or to skillful leadership in the face of a crisis,” he added. In fact, fearless dominance, linked to low social and physical apprehensiveness, appears to correlate with better-rated presidential performance for leadership, persuasiveness, crisis management and Congressional relations, the analysis showed, the analysis found. Theodore Roosevelt ranked highest in fearless dominance, followed by John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Rutherford Hayes, Zachary Taylor, Bill Clinton, Martin Van Buren, Andrew Jackson and George W. Bush. The analysis drew upon personality assessments of 42 presidents, up to George W. Bush, compiled by Steven Rubenzer and Thomas Faschingbauer for their book “Personality, Character and Leadership in the White House.” More than 100 experts, including biographers, journalists and scholars who are established authorities on one or more U.S. presidents, evaluated their target presidents using standardized psychological measures of personality, intelligence and behavior. The rich historical data on presidents, combined with detailed expert rankings, provided a window into an emerging theory that some aspects of psychopathy may actually be positive adaptations in certain social situations. “The way many people think about mental illness is too cut-and-dried,” Lilienfeld said. “Certainly, full-blown psychopathy is maladaptive and undesirable. But what makes the psychopathic personality so interesting is that it’s not defined by a single trait, but a constellation of traits.” The results of the analysis raise the possibility that the boldness often associated with psychopathy may confer advantages over a variety of occupations involving power and prestige, from politics to business, law, athletics and the military. The findings also add to the debate over the idea of the so-called “successful psychopath,” an individual with psychopathic traits who rises to a position of power in the workplace. “We believe more research is needed into the implications of boldness for leadership in general,” Lilienfeld said.

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