Personality Profile of a Politician

“Why don’t any people who really seem to care about the people in this country ever run for government??”

This is a question I ask myself and have seen asked by others on social media and in real life.

Donald Trump is sitting in office because he spoke to the people and convinced them that he had their best interest in mind. It was refreshing for people to feel like they mattered and that someone would actually fight for them, not big business.

I never voted for Trump, but as I’ve said before, I understand why people did. I felt that he was wearing a mask of appeal that hid the truth that he wanted to line his own and his friends’ pockets..just like many other politicians. Whether that’s true or not depends on your perspective. His net worth has gone up tremendously since he took office and his approval rating is <40%, so I’m probably not entirely wrong.

Anyway, back to the topic. Today I wanted to see what the research says about the personality types that opt to go into politics.

Personality Type Intro

Personality type is defined by the APA Dictionary as, “any of the specific categories into which human beings may be classified on the basis of personality traits, attitudes, behavior patterns, physique (see constitutional type), or other outstanding characteristics. Examples are Carl Jung’s introversion–extraversion distinction and functional types and Erich Fromm’s character types, such as the exploitative orientation and marketing orientation“.

The most commonly used personality type framework is the Meyers-Briggs 16 MBTI Personality Type. From their site:

The Myers-Briggs^® system consists of four preference pairs that reflect different aspects of personality—opposite ways to direct and receive energy through Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I), take in information with Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), come to conclusions using Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), and approach the outside world through Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). Most people find that one preference, in a preference pair, best describes their natural way of doing things, where they feel the most comfortable being themselves, outside of any roles they play in life. When the letters for each of these preferences are combined, 16 distinct personality types form which consist of different characteristics unique to that type.

I’ve taken this test and received my personality type as part of a workplace development program for young women who are likely to develop into leadership roles and display upward mobility. Not only was the program extremely enlightening, I got to go to Munich right before Oktoberfest on my workplace’s dime! Cha-ching.

My personality type is ISTJ, which is defined like this:

ISTJ: Quiet, serious, earn success by being thorough and dependable. Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible. Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions. Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized—their work, their home, their life. Value traditions and loyalty.

Pros associated with my personality are: detail-oriented, realistic, present-focused, observant, logical, practical, orderly and organized

Cons are: Judgmental, subjective, tendency to blame others, and insensitivity

Anyone who would think I’m organized should see my desk.

My personality type makes my chosen career of Cybersecurity Architect a great fit. My introversion would make careers with high interpersonal engagement a challenge as it would “drain my batteries” faster than prototyping technical solutions for the Energy sector in my own little bubble does.

If you’re curious about your MBTI, you can check out 16 Personalities and take a version of the test here: Free Personality Test | 16Personalities

Knowing a little bit about personality tests and the MBTI, let’s look into the personality types that are best at and most attracted to politics.

Politicians and their Personalities

Lucky for me, a lot of research has been done and articles written on the personality profile of a politician.

First, I’ll look at the recorded personality types of some key politicians with definitions:

• Donald Trump – ESTP:
  • Pros: good at making quick decisions, practical, and has strong social skills
  • Cons: Impulsive, struggle with abstract concepts, impatient and overly direct
• Barack Obama- ENTP:
  • Pros: innovative, values knowledge, creative, good conversationalist, curious, and good debate skills
  • Cons: problems committing, argumentative, insensitive and problems following through
• Abraham Lincoln – INTP:
  • Pros: Logical and objective, abstract thinking, independent, loyal and affectionate with loved ones
  • Cons: Hard to get to know, insensitive, prone to self doubt, struggles to follow rules, trouble expressing feelings
• Gavin Newsom -ENTJ:
  • Pros: strong leadership skills, self-assured, well organized, good at making decisions, assertive and outspoken, good communicator
  • Cons: Impateint, stubborn, insensitive, aggressive, intolerant
• Mark Kelly- ISTP:
  • Pros: Logical, learns by experience, action-oriented, realistic and practical, enjoys new things, self confident and easy-going
  • Cons: Difficult to get to know, insensitive, bored easily, takes risks, doesn’t like commitment
• Zohran Mamdani & Ilhan Omar – ENFJ:
  • Pros: Outgoing and warm-hearted, empathetic, encouraging, organized, affectionate, persuasive
  • Cons: Approval-seeking, sensitive, indecisive, self-sacrificing, rigid, overprotective, manipulative
• Andy Ogles – ISFJ
  • Pros: Reliable, practical, sensitive, eye for details
  • Cons: Dislikes abstract concepts, avoids confrontation, dislikes change, neglects own needs
• Tim Walz – ESFJ:
  • Pros: Kind, loyal, outgoing, organized, practical, enjoys helping others, conscientious
  • Cons: Needy, approval-seeking, sensitive to criticism, dislikes change, intolerant, controlling
• Nancy Mace – ESTJ:
  • Pros: Practical and realistic, dependable, self-confident, hard-working, traditional, good leader
  • Cons: Insensitive, inflexible, bad at expressing feelings, argumentative, bossy

It’s clear the extroverts are more represented than introverts, which makes a lot of sense. Republicans tend to be more “sensing” than “intuition” (S over N). Both Mamdani and Omar share the same personality type, which I found interesting as they are so similar politically. I think it’s interesting that my favorite president, Lincoln, was an introvert, and my hope for 2028’s election Mark Kelly is an introvert as well. Maybe like prefers like? More on that in a bit.

The next source I’d like to cite is a survey done outlined in the Topeka Capital-Journal.

This article discusses the common characteristics of people who run for office. Here are the general statements that political candidates are likely to agree with:

• I find it easy to imitate the behavior of other people.
• I guess I put on a show to impress or entertain people.
• I would probably make a good actor.
• I sometimes appear to others to be experiencing deeper emotions than I actually am.
• In a group of people, I often am the center of attention.
• In different situations and with different people, I often act like very different persons.
• I can argue for ideas I don’t already believe.
• To get along and be liked, I tend to be what people expect me to be rather than who I really am
• I am always the person I appear to be.
• I may deceive people by being friendly when I really dislike them.

James Svara and Jim Kunde, the originators of the findings state that politicians that don’t fit this profile are commonly first-time candidates. I find that interesting – the longer someone stays in politics, the more likely they’ll agree with the above statements.

Problematically, some of these statements are likely to be agreed on by sociopaths. Wait, are politicians all sociopaths??

According to the University of Amsterdam, the tendency for leaders to score high on the “dark triad”: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism has been on the rise globally. Their study included leaders like Donald Trump (Right-Wing), Jair Bolsonaro (Right-Wing), Emmanuel Macron (Centrist), Marine Le Pen (Right-Wing), Angela Merkel (Right-Wing), Theresa May (Right-Wing), Jeremy Corbyn (Left-Wing), Boris Johnson (Right-Wing), Viktor Orbán (Right-Wing), Narendra Modi (Right-Wing), Silvio Berlusconi (Right-Wing), Shinzo Abe (Right-Wing), and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Right-Wing). I included their political party to show they didn’t just pick right-wing leaders. There are far more right-wingers in their study, but I think that’s more telling of the type of politicians conservatives are likely to support. From their research:

“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 – strategic, manipulative, goal-driven – appear to be catalysts for affective polarisation: they deepen emotional divides between their supporters and others,’ explains Alessandro Nai, researcher at the UvA”

In other words, leaders like Trump, Merkel, and Macron, “are associated with greater hostility toward political opponents among their followers” and “pose clear risks to democratic processes”.

Holy cats, so they’re saying the political divide in the U.S. is DIRECTLY tied to leadership qualities that Trump possesses, according to the scientists?

#shocker

Now that we have looked at some research on personality types and traits of some of our current, past and prospective leaders, let’s examine the research on how our personalities may dictate how we vote.

My Personality = My Political Party?

Does our personality push us more into a conservative or liberal direction? Dana Carney, et. al, published a paper in 2008 (a bit old, I know) that summarized the personality traits of liberals and conservatives as such:

The Liberal/Left-Wing Personality

• Eccentric, sensitive, individualistic
• Open, tolerant, flexible
• Creative, imaginative, curious
• Unpredictable, impulsive
• Desire for novelty, diversity
• Complex, nuanced
• Open-minded / open to experience

The Conservative/Right-Wing Personality:

• Persistent, tenacious
• Reliable, trustworthy, faithful, loyal
• Stable, consistent
• Rigid, intolerant
• Careful, practical, methodical
• Conventional, ordinary
• Obedient, conformist, concerned with rules / norms
• Fearful, threatened
• Closed-minded / less open to experience

In many ways, the traits are the exact opposite of each other. Liberals tend to be open minded, conservatives not so much. Liberals are more likely to be impulsive and unpredictable, while conservatives are careful and methodical.

As a last metric, the 16Personalities site conducted a survey that asked people to identify which political party they support most. Those who answered democrat tended to have the following MBTI breakdown:

And Republicans:

You can see that Republicans are WAY more likely to be Sensing (S – observent), Thinking (T), Judging (J) with no real correlation on their social preferences (I vs. E).

Color me surprised: I’m the perfect conservative as an *STJ, but I’ve always voted blue. This brings up the important point that personality types are not perfect predictors of choices. They can make someone more likely to lean one way but not guarantee how they’ll vote!

Conclusion

To conclude, there are many different MBTI personality types in our government, just as there are in our day-to-day lives. The ability to code switch for different occasions, persuade others and be the center of attention are likely traits of a potential politician, and more likely to be agreed to by a seasoned politician than a rookie.

So-titled “Dark Traits” of leaders (narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism) should be kept in mind when choosing a candidate, as they directly link to political opposition and discourse between parties. I doubt we’d see a true psychopath in office for a very long time, because they tend to self-destruct quite quickly. What we do have is what I would qualify as a Machiavellian Narcissist with antisocial personality traits in the Oval Office though, and researchers agree.

So yeah, let’s keep an eye on Don. Let’s also weigh these traits against our future political choices and help pick a candidate that isn’t “dark”.

Thanks for reading!