Can anyone be objective about Donald Trump? Assessing the personality of political figures

Figures & data

Table 1. Datasets used, at a glance.

Dataset ID	Type	Date collected	N
A	US citizens, MTurk 1	08.2018	1,568
B	US citizens, MTurk 2	11.2018	1,218
C	Experts, US Midterms 2018	11.2018	200
D	Experts, Netherlands election 2017	03.2017	29
E	Experts, Germany election 2017	09.2017	38
F	Dutch students, sample 1	10.2017	201
G	Dutch students, sample 2	12.2017	140

Figure 1. Evaluation of Trump and the Republican party by partisan identification; violin plots (a) Feeling thermometer for Donald Trump. (b) Feeling thermometer for the Republican party. Dataset A (US citizens, MTurk 1).

Figure 2. Evaluation of Trump and the Republican party by interest in politics * partisan identification; marginal effects. (a) Trump. (b) Republican party. Note: Dataset A (US citizens, MTurk 1). Marginal effects with 95% Confidence intervals, based on coefficients in model M3 in Table 1 (panel a) and Table 2 (panel b). Panel a. Dependent variable is evaluation of Trump (“feeling thermometer”) and varies between 0 “no warm feelings at all” and 100 “very warm feelings”. Panel b. Dependent variable is evaluation of the Republican party (“feeling thermometer”) and varies between 0 “no warm feelings at all” and 100 “very warm feelings”.

Figure 3. Evaluation of Trump and the Republican party by agreeableness * partisan identification; marginal effects. (a) Trump. (b) Republican party. Note: Dataset A (US citizens, MTurk 1). Marginal effects with 95% Confidence intervals, based on coefficients in model M3 in Table 1 (panel a) and Table 2 (panel b). Panel a. Dependent variable is evaluation of Trump (‘feeling thermometer’) and varies between 0 ‘no warm feelings at all’ and 100 ‘very warm feelings’. Panel b. Dependent variable is evaluation of the Republican party (‘feeling thermometer’) and varies between 0 ‘no warm feelings at all’ and 100 ‘very warm feelings’. Scores on the y-axis refer to the linear effect of agreeableness on that evaluation

Figure 4. Trump Big Five and Dark Triad personality traits; comparing left-, center-, and right-leaning experts. Note: Dataset C (Experts, US Midterms). N(left) = 127–132; N(center) = 46–51; N(right) = 14. Ideological leaning based on self-reported score on the left-right scale: 0–3 ‘left’, 4–5 ‘center’, 6–10 ‘right’.

Table 2. Experts evaluate the personality of Trump (by ideology).

	All experts			Left			Center			Right
	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N
Big Five
Extraversion	6.32	0.94	197	6.24	0.99	129	6.59	0.68	50	6.04	1.12	14
Agreeableness	1.29	0.68	199	1.21	0.64	130	1.36	0.64	50	1.64	1.03	14
Conscientiousness	1.91	1.26	196	1.85	1.26	127	1.99	1.23	51	2.25	1.50	14
Emotional stability	1.59	1.04	196	1.49	0.95	127	1.74	1.13	50	1.89	1.35	14
Openness	3.34	1.32	192	3.18	1.25	128	3.57	1.44	46	3.79	1.53	14
Dark Triad
Narcissism	6.89	0.35	200	6.95	0.17	132	6.86	0.34	50	6.59	0.87	14
Psychopathy	6.71	0.74	194	6.77	0.60	127	6.68	0.96	49	6.41	0.93	14
Machiavellianism	6.70	0.59	193	6.69	0.59	130	6.82	0.42	47	6.30	0.86	14

Dataset C (Experts, US Midterms). Ideological leaning based on self-reported score on the left-right scale: 0–3 ‘left’, 4–5 ‘center’, 6–10 ‘right’. Personality traits vary between 1 ‘very low’ and 7 ‘very high’.

Table 3. US citizens evaluate the personality of Trump (by ideology).

	All respondents			Left			Center			Right
	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N
Big Five
Extraversion	5.98	1.14	1,218	5.94	1.14	558	5.92	1.20	238	6.08	1.11	408
Agreeableness	2.23	1.44	1,218	1.54	1.07	558	2.19	1.28	238	3.19	1.43	408
Conscientiousness	3.44	2.04	1,218	2.25	1.48	558	3.52	1.80	238	5.02	1.74	408
Emotional stability	2.68	1.70	1,218	1.84	1.19	558	2.76	1.57	238	3.76	1.72	408
Openness	3.67	1.66	1,218	2.79	1.39	558	3.78	1.54	238	4.79	1.34	408
Dark Triad
Narcissism	6.24	1.20	1,218	6.69	0.83	558	6.21	1.15	238	5.68	1.36	408
Psychopathy	5.64	1.62	1,218	6.53	0.89	558	5.67	1.43	238	4.42	1.70	408
Machiavellianism	5.70	1.65	1,218	6.57	0.90	558	5.81	1.39	238	4.48	1.77	408

Note: Dataset B (US citizens, MTurk 2). Ideological leaning based on self-reported score on the left-right scale: 0–3 ‘left’, 4–5 ‘center’, 6–10 ‘right’. Personality traits vary between 1 ‘very low’ and 7 ‘very high’.

Table 4. Dutch students evaluate the personality of Trump (by ideology).

	All respondents			Left			Center			Right
	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N	Mean	SD	N
Big Five
Extraversion	5.77	1.13	197	5.89	1.05	87	5.61	1.20	50	5.73	1.20	49
Agreeableness	2.43	1.10	198	2.26	1.16	89	2.56	0.96	49	2.50	1.07	48
Conscientiousness	2.79	1.41	186	2.49	1.44	82	2.76	1.31	47	3.42	1.35	45
Emotional stability	2.37	1.37	192	1.98	1.17	85	2.56	1.44	48	2.85	1.55	48
Openness	2.97	1.23	186	2.91	1.20	84	2.89	1.07	46	3.24	1.32	44
Dark Triad
Narcissism	6.51	0.81	195	6.69	0.65	88	6.39	0.81	47	6.24	1.04	48
Psychopathy	5.95	1.23	192	6.13	1.22	86	6.09	1.05	47	5.56	1.35	47
Machiavellianism	5.88	1.02	185	5.97	0.99	83	5.82	1.02	45	5.80	1.13	46

Note: Dataset F (Dutch students, sample 1). Ideological leaning based on self-reported score on the left-right scale: 0–3 ‘left’, 4–5 ‘center’, 6–10 ‘right’. Personality traits vary between 1 ‘very low’ and 7 ‘very high’, recoded from original variables ranging between 0–4 using the formula X₂ = ((X₁/4)*6) + 1; for SD, we used the formula X₂ = ((X₁/4)*6).

Figure 5. Trump Big Five and Dark Triad personality traits; comparing experts, American citizens and Dutch students (by ideology). (a) Left-leaning respondents (1–3 on left-right scale). (b) Center-leaning respondents (4–5 on left-right scale). (c) Right-leaning respondents (6–10 on left-right scale). Note: Comparison of scores from Dataset B (US citizens, MTurk 2), Dataset C (Experts, US Midterms), and Dataset F (Dutch students, sample 1) Ideological leaning based on self-reported score on the left-right scale: 0–3 ‘left’, 4–5 ‘center’, 6–10 ‘right’.

Figure 6. The personality of Wilders, Rutte, and Merkel; comparing evaluations by experts and Dutch students (by ideology). Notes: Comparison of scores from Dataset D (Experts, Netherlands election 2017), Dataset D (Experts, Germany election 2017), and Dataset G (Dutch students, sample 2). Ideological leaning based on self-reported score on the left-right scale: 0–3 ‘left’, 4–5 ‘center’, 6–10 ‘right’. Personality evaluations range from 0 ‘very low’ to 4 ‘very high’. See table A1 in the appendix for full scores.