Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i4.5493
Exports for your reference manager
Who Are the "Dark" Politicians? Insights From Self-Reports of German State Parliament Candidates
[journal article]
Abstract A growing body of studies is focusing on politicians' personalities, as the personality of political elites has been shown to affect their behavior. Whereas most research uses the big five framework or HEXACO, only a few studies have been able to capture more "aversive," "dark" - yet non-pathologica... view more
A growing body of studies is focusing on politicians' personalities, as the personality of political elites has been shown to affect their behavior. Whereas most research uses the big five framework or HEXACO, only a few studies have been able to capture more "aversive," "dark" - yet non-pathological - personality traits of politicians. However, these studies refer to top politicians; information on the distribution and the correlates of dark personality traits in the broad mass of politicians is still lacking. Moreover, information on dark personality traits in politicians is usually based on expert ratings; data using self-placement is missing. Based on data from six surveys with candidates running for German state elections in 2021 and 2022 (N[pooled data set] = 1,632), we, to the best of our knowledge, offer, for the first time, insights into politicians’ self-reported socially aversive personality traits. "Dark" personality traits are measured by the political elites aversive personality scale (PEAPS). Results show that German politicians exhibit moderate levels of aversive personality traits. In addition, the extent of candidates' dark personalities is strongly negatively correlated with honesty-humility, agreeableness vs. anger, and extraversion, while associations with other basic personality traits are much weaker or insignificant. We also find that younger, more right-leaning, and more ideologically extreme candidates report higher levels of aversive personality.... view less
Keywords
Federal Republic of Germany; personality; survey; candidacy; self-assessment; election to the Landtag; personality traits
Classification
Personality Psychology
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
aversive personality; candidate survey; dark personality; self-reports
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
Page/Pages
p. 349-360
Journal
Politics and Governance, 10 (2022) 4
Issue topic
Negative Politics: Leader Personality, Negative Campaigning, and the Oppositional Dynamics of Contemporary Politics
ISSN
2183-2463
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed