“TALENTS FOR LOW INTRIGUE” PREVAILING PERSONALITY SIMILARITIES AMONG AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Abstract

Winners and losers of United States presidential elections do not vary meaningfully on personality traits presidential scholars deem salient. Instead, losers, like presidents, commonly possess archetypal traits defined in existing presidential scholarship by ambition, extraversion, and aggressive self-interest. This archetype is pervasive in cultural depictions of the presidency and in academic research on these traits, research which in some cases claims a causal relationship between certain traits and presidential success. This thesis extends existing bodies of work on the personal presidency through the addition of major losers of presidential elections to well-established personality trait indices based on a novel biographical survey. I conclude that first, these major losers possess the archetypal presidential personality traits, and second, are nearly indistinguishable from presidents on ratings of success-linked traits that scholars have relied on for decades. Consistently throughout American history, the feedback loop of previous presidents and the cultural perceptions thereof has ensured that those persons who become major candidates have exemplified this ambitious, self-serving personality archetype. I supplement these core findings with a correlational analysis of the American National Election Studies (ANES) survey on candidate personality. My findings suggest that as public perceptions of presidential candidates have become more negative throughout the 21st century, the relationship between positive character evaluations of presidents and their electoral successes has weakened. Finally, I propose a modification to the ANES that would frame the issue of personality more productively for voters, redirecting the discussion toward success-linked personality traits and away from the archetypal presidential personality.