Introduction: Personality, party leaders, and election campaigns

Abstract

Many are concerned that authoritarianism is increasing across the political spectrum. In the current study, we investigated the extent to which dark personality variables (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism) predict both right- and left-wing authoritarianism (RWA and LWA) between Republicans and Democrats. We developed profiles of individuals' political and personality characteristics concomitant with endorsement of authoritarianism. Our findings (n = 527) suggest a complex interaction between dark traits and political views. Using latent profile analysis, we uncovered underlying profiles characterizing distinct groups of individuals across party identification, LWA, RWA, and dark traits. Four latent profiles emerged: (1) a typical Democrat, low in dark traits and higher in LWA; (2) a typical Republican, low in dark traits and higher in RWA; (3) a dark Democrat, high in dark traits and high in both RWA and LWA; (4) a dark Republican, high in dark traits and high in both RWA and LWA. Together, these data suggest that authoritarianism manifests differentially across the political spectrum and is influenced by emotional style.