William Lindsey Aug 9, 2025

"A new psychological study has found that people who report favorable views of Donald Trump also tend to score higher on measures of callousness, manipulation, and other malevolent traits—and lower on empathy and compassion. The findings, based on two large surveys of U.S. adults, shed light on how personality traits relate to political beliefs, including support for Trump and conservative ideology."

~ Eric W. Dolan

#Trump #authoritarianism #empathy #psychopathy
/1

https://www.psypost.org/trump-supporters-report-higher-levels-of-psychopathy-manipulativeness-callousness-and-narcissism/

Trump supporters report higher levels of psychopathy, manipulativeness, callousness, and narcissism

Support for Donald Trump is linked to darker personality traits, including increased psychopathy and decreased empathy, new research finds. The study also connects conservative political beliefs to lower benevolence, suggesting personality may shape how people engage with politics and ideology.

PsyPost Psychology News
Show threadWilliam Lindsey Aug 9, 2025

"Conservative political ideology is associated with social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), psychopathic propensities (PPs), and other malevolent dispositions, and reduced empathy."

~ Craig S. Neumann and Darlene A. Ngo

#Trump #authoritarianism #empathy #psychopathy
/2

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656625000704?via%3Dihub

Show threadWilliam Lindsey Aug 9, 2025

"We examined the links between SDO, RWA, PPs and political ideology, and whether those who view Trump favorably reported higher PPs (or malevolent traits) and reduced empathy or benevolent dispositions."

#Trump #authoritarianism #empathy #psychopathy
/3

Show threadWilliam Lindsey Aug 9, 2025

"The report also revealed that while both men and women showed similar patterns, the associations were stronger for men."

~ Adam Lynch

#Trump #authoritarianism #empathy #psychopathy #men #gender #MaleEntitlement #MaleDomination
/3

https://www.alternet.org/trump-supporters-maga-empathy/

Callous and manipulative: Study says 'malevolent personality traits' dominate Trump voters

PsyPost reports a new psychological study has found that people who claim favorable views of President Donald Trump also tend to score higher on measures of callousness, manipulation, and other malevolent traits—and lower on empathy and compassion.“Our findings suggest a link between malevolent pers...

Alternet.org
Show threadWilliam Lindsey Aug 9, 2025

"Can we stop supporting sociopathic leaders? Isn’t it possible to recognize these qualities as dangerous warning signs of unfitness rather than expressions of strength? What does it say about our body politic that so many Americans are drawn to these types of people? Is this attraction a dangerous affliction found in every society? Should there be psychological tests as one guardrail against their continuing success?"

~ Steven Beschloss

#Trump #RFKJr #psychopathy
/4

https://www.americaamerica.news/p/can-we-stop-supporting-sociopathic

Can We Stop Supporting Sociopathic Leaders?

A Saturday Prompt

America, America
Show threadAdam MacLeodAug 9, 2025
@wdlindsy Yes, one of the many things from the Star Trek universe that would help our societies today. Every officer in Starfleet must undergo multiple and lengthy psychological assessments, evaluations, and testing. and the one's who are psycho get dropped from the service.
Show threadToni AittoniemiAug 9, 2025

@adam @wdlindsy According to very recent studies in political neuropsychology, we could probably scan people’s brains and with modern structural/functional scans be able to get about 20-30% correlation to these traits.

But do we really want to?

Because once we start filtering for some treat, that filter can be flipped over quite easily. Especially by strongmen in power. 🤔

Show threadAllyAug 10, 2025
@gimulnautti @adam @wdlindsy if we get rid of the psychopaths, there will be no strongmen in power to be afraid of
Show threadToni Aittoniemi
@InfoDumpTruck @adam @wdlindsy But that’s just eugenics again. We don’t know what traits are inherently good for future events. Philosophers have warned against this for centuries.
Aug 10, 2025 at 8:30amWeb
Show threadAllyAug 10, 2025
@gimulnautti @adam @wdlindsy I don't care what you call my stance on it, psychopathy is never a good thing and cannot be integrated into society. Its defining feature is antisocial, its lacking humanity.