Populist voters like dark politicians - ScienceDirect

The Nugget

  • Populist voters are more likely to appreciate politicians with dark personality traits and low agreeableness.

Key quotes

  • "Candidate likeability is lower for candidates scoring higher on dark traits."
  • "Populist voters are significantly more likely to appreciate candidates high on the Dark triad and low on agreeableness."
  • "The investigation leverages evidence from an international survey that includes expert-ratings for personality profile of 49 top candidates having competed in 22 national elections."
  • "The effects, especially for (low) agreeableness, are quite substantial."

Key insights

Populist voters prefer dark politicians

  • Populists tend to appreciate candidates with dark personality traits such as narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, and low agreeableness.
  • The study's results confirm that there is a significant correlation between populist attitudes and preferring candidates with these darker traits.

Large-scale international survey

  • Insights were gathered from an international survey that analyzed the likability of top candidates in 22 national elections.
  • The study matched expert ratings of personality traits of the candidates with self-ratings of populist attitudes and candidate likeability.

Make it stick

  • 💡 Populist voters lean towards politicians with dark traits like narcissism and psychopathy.
  • 🌐 The study used a large international survey to link voter preferences with candidate personality traits.
  • 🔍 Populist attitudes are related to appreciating candidates with low agreeableness.
  • 🗳️ Understanding voter preferences can shed light on the appeal of different candidates in elections.
This summary contains AI-generated information and may be misleading or incorrect.