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The global study indicates that your favorite politicians make you hate the other side
short
- The features of the dark personality (narcissism, psychological disorder, Machiavelli) in the politicians you support – do not contradict – a deeper political polarization
- This effect occurs only when voters feel that they are close to the dark candidate
- Politicians who have traits such as emotional stability are already reducing polarization among their supporters
Amsterdam – Your favorite political fighter may make you more attractive than you realize – but not for the reasons you think.
A new study reveals an unexpected development in what drives the political division: it is not the personalities of politicians whom we hate this polarization – they are the features of the dark personality of politicians we already support to expand the political gap.
This discovery turns traditional wisdom on his head. While many assume that our political hatred stems from opposition figures, research published in European Journal of Political Research He explains that when voters feel compatible with politicians who are displaying narcissism, psychopath, and Meccaanism, they become more attractive against opponents.
“Our results show that the dark personality of senior politicians can be linked to an increase in emotional polarization in the public-but only for the voter candidates, and only to high levels of ideological proximity between the candidate and the voters,” the researchers, led by Alessandro Nay at the University of Amsterdam.
Dark Trinity in Politics
The researchers focused on what psychologists call the “dark trinity” of character features:
- Narcissism
- Psychology: emotional coldness and ignore the feelings of others
- Machiavelli: strategic behaviors and audio behaviors
To study how these qualities affect voters, the team studied more than 90 senior politicians who competed in 40 national elections around the world between 2016 and 2021, including leaders such as Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Boris Johnson.
The researchers linked the personal assessments of these leaders with survey data from about 34,000 voters who participated in the elections in which these candidates competed.
Why are your side matters more
People pay close attention to information from the sources they already trust – a phenomenon called “enthusiastic thinking”. Humans easily accept the information that matches their current beliefs while rejecting contradictory information.
“In times of the growing political conflict, voters are expected to undergo stronger withdrawal than the loyalties within the group, and they may even lead them to support a more muscle profile in their elites,” the authors note.
The results revealed the existence of a clear pattern: When voters felt ideologically compatible with the candidates who recorded in dark personal features, they showed higher levels of emotional polarization – meaning that they felt more positive about their favorite and more negative candidates about opponents.
This effect was stronger for Machiavelli, although narcissism and psychopath also showed effects. On the contrary, the candidates who were classified on features such as emotional stability had an opposite effect, which somewhat reduces polarization among their close supporters.
More importantly, the character features of the candidates who did not oppose the opposition parties had a much lower impact on polarization levels. This undermines the common assumption that political hatred is primarily driven by participating towards opposition figures.
Unstable democracy
These results raise the effects of democracies. According to researchers, “the dark features seem to be particularly prevalent between the Autocrats and the people, indicating a potential intersection between uncomfortable leaders, democratic clarification and emotional polarization.”
If the complainant candidates intensify the polarization among their supporters, and these supporters are equivalent to these candidates through their election, then we risk the reactions that gradually harm democratic standards and social cohesion.
The conclusion provides a new perspective on polarization treatment: it may require voters to become more critical of the personalities they support instead of focusing only on the opposition’s refusal.
Paper summary
methodology
The researchers merged two main sources of data for their analysis. First, they used the NEGEX data collection, a large -scale survey where scientists with experience in electoral policy classified political candidates on both the characteristics of the “Five Great” and “Dark Trinity” of narcissism, psychopath, and Machiavellian. Second, they used the comparative study of electoral systems (CSES), which provides post -election survey data from voters across multiple countries. The interference between these data groups included 91 senior candidates who competed in 40 national elections around the world. To measure the emotional polarization, they calculated the difference between how voters warmly classified their favorite candidates in exchange for opponents. Then they linked the character characteristics of the candidate to the levels of attracting voters, and studied how the relationship differed depending on whether the candidate was from the favorite party of the voters or one of them opposition.
results
The study found that the features of the dark personality of politicians were associated with an increase in emotional polarization between voters, but with a decisive qualification: this effect was only important for candidates who do not hold parties (those from the favorite parties of the voters) and only when the voters felt that they were approaching only ideologies of these candidates. All three dark features showed some effect, although Machiavelli showed the most powerful relationship with polarization. On the contrary, candidates who record features such as emotional stability have somewhat reduced polarization among their close supporters. The personal features of the candidates who did not return from the opposition parties had a little impact on the levels of attracting voters, indicating that the political division is more driven than attaching to dark non -partisan figures than participating towards the opposition.
Restrictions
The authors admit several restrictions on their research. First, the monitoring nature of their data makes it difficult to prove causation-it is possible that independent voters already choose the candidates for the dark personality instead of these candidates who cause polarization. Second, the study only included senior national politicians and was unable to assess antiquities at more local levels, as the relations of the voters may be closer. Third, the use of expert evaluations to evaluate political figures may lead to biases, although researchers have implemented many controls to address this anxiety. Finally, the transverse design is prohibited to examine how these relationships develop over time.
Finance and disclosure
Alessandro Nai, the main researcher, admits to receive financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF Ref. P300p1_161163). The authors express their gratitude to the European magazine of political research editors and unknown auditors for their inputs during the review process, as well as to all experts who donated their time and cse to provide throughout the national survey data.
Publishing information
The paper was published entitled “Shutting the audience? Dark politicians and emotional polarization” in European Journal of Political Research. The authors are Alessandro Nay and Katgana Gaterman from the College of Communications Research in Amsterdam at the University of Amsterdam; Ferdriko Ferrera da Silva and Diego Garzia from the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Lausanne; Loes Aaldering from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at VRIJE Universiteit Axterdam.