PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Fearless Dominance and the U.S. Presidency: Implications of Psychopathic Personality Traits for Successful and Unsuccessful Political Leadership

Scott O. Lilienfeld, Irwin D. Waldman, and Kristin Landfield

Emory University

Ashley L. Watts University of Georgia

Steven Rubenzer Houston, Texas

Thomas R. Faschingbauer Foundation for the Study of Personality in History, Houston,

Texas

Although psychopathic personality (psychopathy) is marked largely by maladaptive traits (e.g., poor impulse control, lack of guilt), some authors have conjectured that some features of this condition (e.g., fearlessness, interpersonal dominance) are adaptive in certain occupations, including leadership positions. We tested this hypothesis in the 42 U.S. presidents up to and including George W. Bush using (a) psychopathy trait estimates derived from personality data completed by historical experts on each president, (b) independent historical surveys of presidential leadership, and (c) largely or entirely objective indicators of presidential performance. Fearless Dominance, which reflects the boldness associated with psychopathy, was associated with better rated presidential performance, leadership, persuasiveness, crisis management, Congressional relations, and allied variables; it was also associated with several largely or entirely objective indicators of presidential perfor- mance, such as initiating new projects and being viewed as a world figure. Most of these associations survived statistical control for covariates, including intellectual brilliance, five factor model personality traits, and need for power. In contrast, Impulsive Antisociality and related traits of psychopathy were generally unassociated with rated presidential performance, although they were linked to some largely or entirely objective indicators of negative job performance, including Congressional impeachment resolutions, tolerating unethical behavior in subordinates, and negative character. These findings indicate that the boldness associated with psychopathy is an important but heretofore neglected predictor of presidential performance, and suggest that certain features of psychopathy are tied to successful interpersonal behavior.

Keywords: psychopathy, antisocial behavior, leadership, politics, personality

Psychopathic personality (psychopathy) is a constellation of personality traits encompassing superficial charm, egocentricity, dishonesty, guiltlessness, callousness, risk taking, poor impulse

control (Cleckley, 1941/1988; Hare, 2003), and, according to many authors (Fowles & Dindo, 2009; Lykken, 1995; Patrick, 2006), fearlessness, social dominance, and immunity to anxiety. In contrast to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disor- ders, fourth edition, text revision (DSM–IV–TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000), diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), which is primarily a behavioral condition that emphasizes a long-standing history of antisocial and criminal behavior, psychopa- thy is primarily a dispositional condition that emphasizes personality traits. Nevertheless, measures of these two conditions tend to be at least moderately correlated (Lilienfeld, 1994).

Factor analyses of the most extensively validated measure of psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003), have often revealed two broad and moderately correlated dimensions. The first dimension (Factor 1) assesses the core in- terpersonal and affective features of psychopathy (e.g., guiltless- ness, narcissism, glibness), whereas the second dimension (Factor 2) assesses an impulsive and antisocial lifestyle that is closely associated with ASPD (Harpur, Hare, & Hakstian, 1989; but see Cooke & Michie, 2001, and Hare, 2003, for alternative factor

This article was published Online First July 23, 2012. Scott O. Lilienfeld, Irwin D. Waldman, and Kristin Landfield, Depart-

ment of Psychology, Emory University; Ashley L. Watts, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia; Steven Rubenzer, Houston, Texas; Thomas R. Faschingbauer, Foundation for the Study of Personality in History, Houston, Texas.

We thank Joanna Berg, Rachel Ammirati, David Molho, Gabriella Rich, Zack Babin, Marie King, and Barbara Greenspan for their helpful com- ments on previous drafts of this manuscript; Joshua Miller for his statistical assistance; Alan Abramowitz for his helpful advice; and Caroline Hennigar and Alyssa Redmon for their valuable assistance with data entry and library research.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Scott O. Lilienfeld, Room 473, Psychology and Interdisciplinary Sciences Building, Emory University, 36 Eagle Row, Atlanta, GA 30322. E-mail: slilien@emory.edu

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2012, Vol. 103, No. 3, 489–505 © 2012 American Psychological Association 0022-3514/12/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0029392

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solutions). Although the PCL-R is a semistructured interview that incorporates file information, its two major dimensions can be closely approximated by scores on normal range personality di- mensions, such as those derived from the five-factor model (FFM) of personality. PCL-R Factor 1 is associated primarily with low scores on FFM Agreeableness, whereas PCL-R Factor 2 is asso- ciated primarily with low scores on both FFM Agreeableness and Conscientiousness (Miller, Lynam, Widiger, & Leukefeld, 2001). Most research demonstrates that psychopathy and its constituent traits are underpinned by dimensions rather than taxa (natural categories; see Edens, Marcus, Lilienfeld, & Poythress, 2006), offering empirical support for recent efforts to conceptualize and assess this condition within a general dimensional model of per- sonality structure.

Most research on the behavioral manifestations of psychopathy has focused on its relations with antisocial, criminal, and otherwise unsuccessful actions. Studies demonstrate that psychopathy is a risk factor for criminality and violent recidivism among prison inmates (Porter & Woodworth, 2006; Salekin, Rogers, & Sewell, 1996) as well as cheating among college students (Williams, Nathanson, & Paulhus, 2010). In addition, some authors have argued that psychopathy is associated with malignant workplace behavior. Babiak and Hare (2006) referred to psychopaths in business settings as “snakes in suits” and suggested that their propensity toward dishonesty and manipulativeness makes them destructive coworkers and bosses (see also Boddy, 2006; Heinze, Allen, Magai, & Ritzler, 2010).

Despite the lengthy research tradition linking psychopathy to unsuccessful behavior, a consistent strand of clinical lore has tied psychopathy, or at least certain features of it, to socially successful behavior across a variety of domains, including the business world, politics, and everyday life (Lilienfeld, 1998). In his classic writ- ings, Cleckley (1941/1988) referred to individuals with marked psychopathic traits whose “outward appearance may include busi- ness or professional careers that continue in a sense successful, and which are truly successful when measured by financial reward or even by the casual observer’s opinion of real accomplishment” (p. 191). Extending these observations, Lykken (1982) referred to psychopaths and heroes as “twigs from the same branch” (p. 22) and conjectured that the fearlessness associated with psychopathy can predispose to heroic behaviors. Other authors have raised the possibility of “subclinical” (Widom, 1977) or “successful” (Hall & Benning, 2006; Mullins-Sweatt, Glover, Miller, Derefinko, & Wi- diger, 2010) psychopaths, individuals with pronounced psycho- pathic traits who function effectively in circumscribed “adaptive niches” of society, such as politics, business, law enforcement, and high-risk sports. In one of the few studies to address this issue empirically, Babiak, Neumann, and Hare (2010) examined a sam- ple of 203 corporate professionals and found that scores on the PCL-R and its component factors were associated not only with a more problematic management style and with being a poor team player but also with superior communication skills, creativity, and strategic thinking. These important results raise the possibility that psychopathy, or at least some features of it, are associated with certain aspects of adaptive functioning in workplace settings, al- though they may also be associated with certain aspects of mal- adaptive functioning. Nevertheless, because the PCL-R ratings in this study were conducted by a single individual who was not blind to other information about participants, including information po-

tentially relevant to criterion ratings, these results should be viewed as preliminary.

Still others have speculated that some psychopathic traits, such as interpersonal dominance, persuasiveness, and venturesomeness, may be conducive to acquiring positions of political power and to successful leadership (Hogan, Raskin, & Fazzini, 1990; Lobac- weski, 2007). Indeed, Lykken (1995) speculated that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. president Lyndon Baines Johnson possessed certain personality features of psychopathy: They started off life as “daring, adventurous, and unconventional youngsters who began playing by their own rules” (p. 116) but later managed to parlay these traits into political success.

Nevertheless, the successful manifestations of psychopathy re- main largely in the realm of clinical conjecture. Moreover, with the exception of the study by Babiak et al. (2010), the scattered research in this domain (e.g., Ishakawa, Raine, Lencz, Bihrle, & LaCasse, 2001; Widom, 1977) has focused almost exclusively on psychopathic individuals who have engaged in minimal antisocial behavior or managed to escape detection by the legal system, rather than those who are clearly successful from an interpersonal or societal standpoint (Hall & Benning, 2006).

Recent work on a widely used and well-validated self-report psychopathy measure, the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996), may shed light on this issue. Exploratory factor analyses of the PPI (Benning, Patrick, Hicks, Blonigen, & Krueger, 2003) in community samples have identified two largely uncorrelated higher order dimensions, Fearless Dom- inance (FD) and Impulsive Antisociality1 (IA; but see Neumann, Malterer, & Newman, 2008, for an alternative factor structure of the PPI). FD, which assesses what Patrick, Fowles, and Krueger (2009) term “boldness,” comprises such traits as social dominance, charm, physical fearlessness, and immunity to anxiety; IA com- prises such traits as egocentricity, manipulativeness, poor impulse control, rebelliousness, and tendency to externalize blame. Al- though these two factors bear some similarities to the two major PCL-R factors, they are not isomorphic with them empirically or conceptually. In particular, although IA and PCL-R Factor 2 are moderately to highly correlated, FD and PCL-R Factor 1 are only weakly correlated (Malterer, Lilienfeld, Newman, & Neumann, 2010), largely because FD assesses a more psychologically adap- tive set of traits than does PCL-R Factor 1 (Patrick, 2006).

Several studies have demonstrated that the boldness assessed by FD is associated with healthy psychological adjustment—and may reflect many of the traits commonly attributed to successful psy- chopathy—whereas IA is associated with psychological maladjust- ment. Offering provisional corroboration for Lykken’s (1982) con- jecture regarding fearlessness and heroism, Patrick, Edens, Poythress, Lilienfeld, and Benning (2006) found that in a sample of 96 prisoners, FD scores derived from the PPI were significantly and positively associated with self-reported heroic behaviors (e.g., breaking up fights in public, helping stranded motorists), whereas IA scores were significantly and negatively associated with these behaviors. In addition, PPI-derived FD is negatively correlated

1 In the revised version of the PPI (Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005), this dimension is termed Self-Centered Impulsivity. Nevertheless, we use the term Impulsive Antisociality here to retain continuity with most of the extant literature (e.g., Benning et al., 2003).

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