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Global Study Suggests It’s Your Favorite Politicians Making You Hate the Other Side
In a nutshell
- Dark personality traits (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) in politicians you support—not oppose—drive deeper political polarization
- This effect only occurs when voters feel ideologically close to the candidate with dark traits
- Politicians with traits like emotional stability actually reduce polarization among their supporters
AMSTERDAM — Your favorite political fighter might be making you more polarized than you realize—but not for the reasons you think.
A new study reveals an unexpected twist in what drives political division: it’s not the personalities of politicians we hate that fuel polarization—it’s the dark personality traits of the politicians we actually support that widen the political divide.
This finding flips conventional wisdom on its head. While many assume our political hatred stems from opposition figures, research published in the European Journal of Political Research shows that when voters feel aligned with politicians who display narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, they become more polarized against opponents.
“Our results show that the dark personality of top politicians can be associated with upticks in affective polarization in the public – but only for candidates of voters’ in-party, and only for high levels of ideological proximity between the candidate and the voter,” write the researchers, led by Alessandro Nai at the University of Amsterdam.
The Dark Triad in Politics
The researchers focused on what psychologists call the “Dark Triad” of personality traits:
- Narcissism: Self-importance, entitlement, and craving admiration
- Psychopathy: Emotional coldness and disregard for others’ feelings
- Machiavellianism: Strategic manipulation and cunning behaviors
To examine how these traits affect voters, the team studied more than 90 major politicians who competed in 40 national elections worldwide between 2016 and 2021, including leaders like Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, and Boris Johnson.
The researchers linked these leaders’ personality assessments with survey data from about 34,000 voters who participated in elections where these candidates competed.
Why Your Own Side Matters More
People pay closer attention to information from sources they already trust—a phenomenon called “motivated reasoning.” Humans readily accept information that matches their existing beliefs while rejecting contradictory information.
“In times of heightened political conflict, voters are expected to undergo a stronger pull from in-group loyalties, possibly even leading them to support a more muscular profile in their elites,” the authors note.
The results revealed a clear pattern: when voters felt ideologically aligned with candidates scoring high on dark personality traits, they showed higher levels of affective polarization—meaning they felt much more positively about their preferred candidates and much more negatively about opponents.
This effect was strongest for Machiavellianism, though narcissism and psychopathy also showed effects. By contrast, candidates rated high on traits like emotional stability had the opposite effect, somewhat reducing polarization among their close supporters.
Most importantly, the personality traits of disliked candidates from opposing parties had far less impact on polarization levels. This undermines the common assumption that political hatred is primarily driven by revulsion toward opposition figures.
An Unsteady Democracy
These findings raise concerning implications for democracies. According to the researchers, “Dark traits seem to be particularly prevalent among autocrats and populists, suggesting a potentially nefarious intersection between uncompromising leaders, democratic deconsolidation and affective polarization.”
If candidates with dark personality traits intensify polarization among their supporters, and these supporters reward such candidates by electing them, we risk a feedback loop that gradually damages democratic norms and social cohesion.
The conclusion offers a new perspective on addressing polarization: it may require voters to become more critical of the personalities they support rather than focusing solely on rejecting the opposition.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The researchers combined two major data sources to conduct their analysis. First, they used the NEGex dataset, a large-scale expert survey where scholars with expertise in electoral politics rated political candidates on both the “Big Five” personality traits and the “Dark Triad” of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Second, they utilized the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), which provides post-election survey data from voters across multiple countries. The overlap between these datasets included 91 top candidates who competed in 40 national elections worldwide. To measure affective polarization, they calculated the difference between how warmly voters rated their preferred candidates versus opponents. They then linked candidate personality traits with voter polarization levels, examining how the relationship differed depending on whether the candidate was from a voter’s preferred party or an opposing one.
Results
The study found that the dark personality traits of politicians were associated with increased affective polarization among voters, but with a critical qualification: this effect was only significant for in-party candidates (those from voters’ preferred parties) and only when voters felt ideologically close to those candidates. All three dark traits showed some effect, though Machiavellianism demonstrated the strongest relationship with polarization. Conversely, candidates scoring high on traits like emotional stability somewhat reduced polarization among their close supporters. The personality traits of disliked candidates from opposing parties had minimal impact on voter polarization levels, suggesting that political division is more driven by attachment to dark in-party figures than by revulsion toward opposition.
Limitations
The authors acknowledge several limitations to their research. First, the observational nature of their data makes it difficult to establish causality – it’s possible that already-polarized voters select dark-personality candidates rather than these candidates causing polarization. Second, the study only included top national politicians and couldn’t assess effects at more local levels where voter-candidate relationships might be closer. Third, using expert ratings to assess politician personalities might introduce biases, though the researchers implemented several controls to address this concern. Finally, the cross-sectional design prevents examination of how these relationships might evolve over time.
Funding and Disclosures
Alessandro Nai, the lead researcher, acknowledges receiving financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF Ref. P300P1_161163). The authors express gratitude to the European Journal of Political Research editors and anonymous reviewers for their input during the revision process, as well as to all NEGex experts who donated their time and to CSES for making cross-national survey data available.
Publication Information
The paper titled “Ripping the public apart? Politicians’ dark personality and affective polarization” was published in the European Journal of Political Research. The authors are Alessandro Nai and Katjana Gattermann from the Amsterdam School of Communication Research at the University of Amsterdam; Frederico Ferreira da Silva and Diego Garzia from the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Lausanne; and Loes Aaldering from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
This was self-evident to me. It seems like the 30’s and 60’s were similar and many political and corporate leaders were dark triad. Dark triad people tend to be ruthless and ambitious, so over time they would take over most things. Then they ruin everything, get kicked out, and we start over again.
We’ve known this for decades. Not only political leaders, business as well.