UK study: right-leaning party members favor 'dark triad' leaders
Survey of 4,266 British party members finds those high in narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy prefer leaders with the same traits, especially on the right.
What to know
- Survey of 4,266 members of Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Greens and Reform UK tested links between 'dark triad' traits and leadership preferences.
- Members scoring higher on narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy themselves were more likely to favor leaders exhibiting the same traits.
- The effect was reported as strongest among members of right-leaning parties.
- The study asked about abstract leadership characteristics rather than naming real party leaders.
The study's UK-specific left/right framing may not generalize internationally.
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“Given that this is a British study, you've gotta realise that your democrats also fall into the side that the British define as right-leaning. What that does to the results on an international scale idk”
Rusbekistan · Reddit ↗
Coverage should link to the original academic study rather than a secondary summary site.
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“I really wish the actual study would be referenced instead of 3rd party websites like "the conversation".”
davidhumerful · Reddit ↗
The Conversation authors Study researchersJohn Rauthmann PsychologistReform UK members Study subjects
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump postscomments
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Commenters question UK-specific framing and sourcing of the study
As the article spread across Reddit and Mastodon, commenters raised concerns about how 'right-leaning' is defined in a British context versus internationally, and asked for the underlying academic study rather than a secondary write-up.
“Given that this is a British study, you've gotta realise that your democrats also fall into the side that the British define as right-leaning. What that does to the results on an international scale idk…”
— Rusbekistan -
No, I am specifically referring to how we evolved as a species to have the male role be the physically dominant protector. Men are stronger, faster, and more equipped, on balance, to commit acts of violence. 100,000 years ago, that made a lot of sense. It doesn't make sense anymore. That's all I really meant. We are the victims of our own…
2 more of the top 3 · 3 posts in this stretch
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Meh, nobody evolved to be informed or think critically about anything happening more than about 5 miles away. And even that was probably a lot of embellished stories about mammoths three times the size of a normal one and ten times as aggressive and that's why you only brought home rabbits for dinner, again.
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Given that this is a British study, you've gotta realise that your democrats also fall into the side that the British define as right-leaning. What that does to the results on an international scale idk
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Researchers publish 'dark triad' party membership study via The Conversation
The study's authors detail survey research on 4,266 members of Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Greens and Reform UK, testing whether members' own dark-triad traits predict a preference for leaders who display narcissism, Machiavellianism or psychopathy. They report that the higher members scored on these traits, the more they favored abstract leadership behaviors tied to the same traits, an effect strongest among right-leaning party members.
“the higher members scored on the dark triad themselves, the more likely they …”
— The Conversation (study authors) -
first by Mastodon, 5d ago
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I really wish the actual study would be referenced instead of 3rd party websites like "the conversation".
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