Callous and Manipulative: Study Says 'Malevolent Personality Traits' Dominate Trump Voters

[babylonsister]

Callous and Manipulative: Study Says ‘Malevolent Personality Traits’ Dominate Trump Voters
by Adam Lynch | August 10, 2025 - 5:08am

— from Alternet

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 personality and conservative political ideology, which in our study included positive view of Trump, and that persons with malevolent personality dispositions view political figures with malevolent traits favorably,” said study author Craig Neumann, a Regents Professor of Psychology at the University of North Texas. “Further, people who view malevolent political figures favorably also report less empathy for others and enjoy the suffering of others.”

The paper, which was several years in the making, “was designed to address why some people might view favorably a political figure with a history of business failures, bankruptcies, misogynistic statements caught on video, use of charity money for a self-portrait, etc,” said Neuman.

PsyPost said researchers conducted two large surveys with a total of more than 9,000 U.S. participants. The first sample consisted of 1,000 men recruited online, about one-third of whom were racial or ethnic minorities. The second sample included 8,047 men and women who completed personality questionnaires on a public psychology website. Participants in both samples completed a range of validated questionnaires measuring political attitudes, personality traits, and empathy, researchers say.

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/adam-lynch/114595/callous-and-manipulative-study-says-malevolent-personality-traits-dominate-trump-voters

[House of Roberts]

1. Study says: Assholes vote Republican

I coulda told 'em that.

[moniss]

7. Well put. nt

[OldBaldy1701E]

10. And, for a lot cheaper, I bet! (n/t)

[House of Roberts]

14. Probably.

The study was done at the University of North Texas, so I expect he didn't have far to travel to have plenty of subjects to study!

[OldBaldy1701E]

24. Plus, there is the concept of paying someone lots of money to state what is essentially a truism. (n/t)

[Midnight Writer]

18. Exactly. If you'd asked me 20 years ago to predict who would end up voting for a fascist, racist, misogynist

I could have picked out the ones I know.

Having lived my whole life in a small, conservative farm town, I can tell you these folks were assholes when they were kids, they were assholes as co-workers, they were assholes as family members, they were assholes as neighbors.

The concept of The United States is that, while maintaining our individuality, we work together for our mutual interests.

The concept of MAGA is to screw everyone else, sometimes for gain, sometimes just for shits and giggles.

[Metaphorical]

2. No Real Surprise Here

I found this statement (from the original article) especially telling:

Supporters of Trump were less likely to feel concern for others’ suffering (lower affective empathy) and more likely to enjoy or be indifferent to others’ distress (higher dissonant empathy). Importantly, these differences were not found in cognitive empathy. Trump supporters were just as able as others to recognize emotions in others—they simply appeared to care less, on average.

These are all extreme extroverted characteristics. In Myers-Briggs terms, the Trump conservatives tend to cluster around ESXJ - highly judgmental, focused primarily on image, wealth and status, with very little introspective capability, highly aggressive and happy only when they can dominate others. They are generally psychopathic and narcissistic.

You also see them clustered in pressured sales and marketing, politics, religion, mid-to-upper level management, sports, law enforcement, and organized crime. They gravitate to power and control over others.

[sky_masterson]

3. NPD Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Explains everything about Trump. His Confabulation, future faking, magical thinking, manipulative speech, his debating style, his grandiosity. The way he puts on mask for certain people that make him seem different in person. Trump is a walking vindictive toddler. He has zero empathy. He is performative in all of his actions. He suffers from splitting, all good or all bad, no middle. He rewrites the present to sound good in his mind and forces us to accept the false reality he created. He is full blown cluster B. A Narcissist in the truest evil form

[sky_masterson]

13. Sam Vaknin said

"That Psychopaths eat narcissist for lunch".
You are correct!
Putin is way more of a psychopath than Trump, which is why Trump cowers before him.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Original publication ...

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

[UTUSN]

5. K&R

[moniss]

6. It describes the appointees and hires

of Crumb the 1st.

[jfz9580m]

8. I was gonna say

All of that fits Musk and that entire technoleech crew around him to a t..

[niyad]

11. NSS. In other news, water is wet.

[Firestorm49]

12. And sadly, this is what makes his followers dangerous.

[rickyhall]

15. Just another mental disposition or disorder?

They're backpeddling, Disorder is the word. I have a few myself but try to keep them at bay. These people don't. It's like OCD with murder fantasies is running the country.

[Crowman2009]

16. Hopefully when their fatted spray tanned golden calf is dead, they will have nothing to live for.

I for one can't wait for the crying MAGA compilation videos on YouTube in the near future.

[malaise]

17. Leader and supporters

That is all

[PCIntern]

19. ...and water is wet.

This reminds me of the old joke about the scientific study to find out why the head of the penis is larger than the shaft. I won’t repeat it here, but you can look it up.

[Paladin]

20. Yeah, put this one in your "Painfully Obvious Facts" file.

trump whores "who view malevolent political figures favorably" and "enjoy the suffering of others"???

Well, knock me over with a feather!

[Ping Tung]

21. They are the kind of people who purposely run over stray cats while shouting "America! Love it or leave it!".

[gulliver]

22. Most people who voted for him probably dislike him...or disapprove of...or even detest him

They just detest us a lot more.

This study is interesting. But the lesson for the wise is "Look in the mirror and ask why a lot of good people like Trump better than us even though he's a crook, a liar, and an asshole." That will help us guide ourselves to a better place and prevent a President Vance.

[moondust]

23. Sadists. n/t

[harumph]

25. Dig deeper. This is the actual original publication - not the "psy post" link provided upthread.

Malevolent vs. benevolent dispositions and conservative political ideology in the Trump era
Neumann et al.


https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656625000704

[Ocelot II]

26. What a surprise.