Psychopathy and the Presidents - Professor Kevin Dutton - Author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths and Flipnosis

Psychopathy and the Presidents - Professor Kevin Dutton - Author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths and Flipnosis





In 2010, psychologists handed out a personality test to the biographers of every U.S. president in history. But there was a catch. It wasn't the biographers who were being tested. It was their subjects.


In 2010, Scott Lilienfeld at Emory University teamed up with forensic psychologist Steven Rubenzer and Thomas Faschingbauer, professor of psychology at the Foundation for the Study of Personality in History, in Houston, Texas, to hand out a personality test to the biographers of every U.S. president in history. But there was a catch. It wasn't the biographers who were being tested. It was their subjects. The biographers, based on their knowledge, had to answer on their subjects' behalf. On the basis of the results, Lilienfeld then estimated the degree to which each president exhibited psychopathic character traits.

The overall ranking list featured below has been compiled on the basis of aggregate presidential ratings on two dimensions of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI): Fearless Dominance and Impulsive Antisociality. As such, it provides an estimate of the true standings of the presidents on the inventory.

Fearless Dominance, which reflects the boldness associated with psychopathy, was associated with higher ratings of presidential performance, leadership, persuasiveness, crisis management, Congressional relations, and related variables. It was also associated with a number of more objective indicators of presidential performance, such as initiating new projects, and being viewed as a world figure.

In contrast, Impulsive Antisociality, and related psychopathic traits were, in general, negatively correlated with highly rated presidential performance. Instead, they were associated with negative indicators of job performance, including Congressional impeachment resolutions, tolerating unethical behavior in subordinates, and unsavoury character.

In the table below, the numbers in the right hand column refer to the average ranking position of each president across both PPI dimensions. John F Kennedy, for example, was ranked second highest (out of 42) on the Fearless Dominance dimension, and sixth highest on the Impulsive Antisociality dimension – which equates to an average rank of 4 across both scales. Bill Clinton – also with an overall average ranking of 4 – came in seventh highest on Fearless Dominance, but enjoyed top billing when it came to Impulsive Antisociality.
The Presidents: A League Table of Psychopathic Traits

John F Kennedy     4
William Clinton     4
Andrew Jackson     6.5
Theodore Roosevelt     7
Lyndon B Johnson     8.5
Franklin D Roosevelt     7.5
Chester Arthur     9.5
George W Bush     9.5
Ronald Reagan     14
Richard Nixon     17.5
Andrew Johnson     19
James Polk     19
John Adams     22.5
John Tyler     15.5
Martin van Buren     18.5
Woodrow Wilson     19.5
Warren Harding     19.5
William Harrison     19.5
Benjamin Harrison     20
James Earl Carter     23
Zachary Taylor     22
George Washington     21.5
Thomas Jefferson     23
Ulysses S Grant     24
John Q Adams     25.5
Dwight D Eisenhower     24.5
Gerald Ford     25.5
Abraham Lincoln     27
James Garfield     25
Harry S Truman     33
Herbert Hoover     25.5
Franklin Pierce     28
James Madison     29
Calvin Coolidge     30.5
George H Bush     32
Grover Cleveland     33.5
James Buchanan     34.5
William Taft     28
Rutherford Hayes     23.5
James Monroe     35.5
Millard Fillmore     33.5
William McKinley     39.5
     

http://kevindutton.co.uk/psychopathy-presidents.html