糖心视频

Politicians who exhibit 'dark' personality traits such as narcissism, psychopathy or Machiavellianism contribute to increasing affective polarization among citizens. This is the conclusion of a new study conducted by the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the University of Lausanne and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in the European Journal of Political Research.

The researchers linked the personality profiles of over 90 prominent politicians worldwide with voter attitudes in 40 national elections. The results reveal striking patterns.

Politicians who score high on the so-called Dark Triad鈥攏arcissism (excessive self-focus), psychopathy (emotional coldness and lack of empathy), and Machiavellianism (a tendency toward manipulation and deception)鈥攁re associated with greater hostility toward political opponents among their followers.

Polarization from within

The researchers show that dark traits have an effect when voters feel ideologically close to the politician in question. The stronger the identification, the more likely supporters are to adopt hostile stances.

"Machiavellian politicians in particular鈥攕trategic, manipulative, goal-driven鈥攁ppear to be catalysts for affective polarization: they deepen emotional divides between their supporters and others," explains Alessandro Nai, researcher at the UvA.

Remarkably, the personality traits of political opponents have little to no effect on the degree of polarization.

Nai said, "We know today that voters tend to take cues from politicians they feel close to, and are more likely to ignore messages from politicians they disagree with. It is thus our own politicians who make us angrier, fuel hostile thinking towards others, and contribute to affective polarization. And this can have dramatic consequences."

Dominant leaders

The study included leaders such as Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen, Angela Merkel, Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson, Viktor Orb谩n, Narendra Modi, Silvio Berlusconi, Shinzo Abe, Recep Tayyip Erdo臒an and many others. Dutch politicians such as Mark Rutte and Geert Wilders were also part of the analysis.

While no individual scores are disclosed, the researchers emphasize a broader trend: during times of political tension, voters tend to prefer dominant, hardline leaders, even when they exhibit norm-breaking or confrontational behavior.

Democratic risks

The findings cast a critical light on the global rise of 'dark' leaders. According to the researchers, the confrontational and uncompromising personality traits of such leaders pose clear risks to democratic processes.

"When the personal traits of leaders poison public discourse, the public's willingness to cooperate weakens, social cohesion suffers, and ultimately democratic norms erode," says co-author Katjana Gattermann of the UvA.

The researchers call for greater awareness of the role (dark) personality plays in political leadership, in particular when these traits appear in strongmen.

Nai concludes, "We have shown in previous research that dark personality traits are particularly frequent in authoritarian leaders and populists; the evidence seems thus to be piling up that narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism are important phenomena if we want to understand why politics, today, seems so confrontational."