By Robert Warden
As I was about to start writing this post, I recalled writing something about a study which found that Trump supporters tend to be higher on what personality psychologists call “The Dark Triad” than other voters, which refers to a combination of traits such as narcissism, manipulativeness and lack of empathy.
Sure enough, checking the “Wayback Machine” which is my computer hard drive, I found that I mentioned this article in part 2 of this series, while describing Trump voters in general. Rather than repeating myself somewhat, I think this is a good time to delve more deeply into the factors which attract Trump’s supporters to him, using information that either was not published yet at that earlier time, or had escaped my notice.
A Psychology Today article from 2020 by David Barash, describes the difficult situation that Trump supporters find themselves in, based on their psychological attributes (Social Psychology Sheds Light on the Troubles of Trump Supporters | Psychology Today).
Four factors are mentioned by Barash:
1 Cognitive dissonance when faced with evidence that their “dear leader” may be very wrong, or lying, about some major issues;
2. “The Marshmallow Test,” made famous by Walter Mischel, which involves temping a child with a marshmallow, or promising two marshmallows if the child can wait 10 minutes. This is used as a test of impulse control with children. Successful impulse control predicts many good outcomes later in life, and vice versa. Barash asserts, reasonably, that Trump supporters act like kids who failed “The Marshmallow Test;”
3. Obedience to Authority, which research has linked to support for Trump, as well as the willingness to engage in vile behaviors on behalf of authority, such as storming the capitol on January 6th, 2021 (which had not yet happened when this article was written);
4. The Frustration-Aggression Connection, in line with obedience to authority and the storming of the capital, Trump supporters tend to be frustrated, insecure, threatened-feeling, and angry, and lash out at perceived enemies in response to that anger;
5. Finally, Barash mentions the Fundamental Attribution Error, which is a tendency to attribute other peoples’ actions to their personality dispositions rather than circumstances which may have led to the behavior. Trump supporters seem very quick to blame those they see as opposed to them, as being fundamentally unworthy people who are unpatriotic, violence-prone, hateful toward America, etc.
It is not as though there is much that we can do in the short-term to change these characteristics of Trumpers. However, understanding these factors can help us in the long term to have more nuanced knowledge regarding what motivates them.
Another Psychology Today article, actually from 2018, by Bobby Azarian, contains an even longer list of MAGA voter characteristics, which overlap with Barash’s list. Rather than going over them in detail, I think that I can summarize them here (A Complete Psychological Analysis of Trump’s Support | Psychology Today).
More innocuous characteristics of MAGA voters, according to Azarian, include voting for him out of financial interest, Trump’s soundbite style holding their interest better than that of other candidates, and the media obsession with celebrities.
Moving to the medium level of pernicious reasons to vote for Trump, Azarian mentions political cynicism (“wanting to watch the world burn”), the well-established link between sensitivity to perceived threats and conservatism, reminders of perceived existential threats, and the Dunning-Kruger Effect (thinking that they know more about politics than they actually do).
Moving to the third and most dangerous level of factors resulting in political support for Trump among MAGA voters, are a misguided sense of entitlement, a lack of exposure to dissimilar others (the “information bubble”), conspiracy theories which appeal to the mentally vulnerable, Trump appealing to the collective narcissism of his base, the desire to dominate others (known as Social Dominance Orientation), having an Authoritarian Personality, and finally, being racist and bigoted.
That is quite a list, and between the two articles, I cannot find any single item which I would dispute as being relatively more characteristic of MAGA voters than the general population. Clearly, these descriptions put them in a bad light. People such as this will be resistant to change, unfortunately. Nonetheless, I suggest holding up a mirror to MAGA voters when given the opportunity, so that they might begin to comprehend how badly their behavior reflects upon them. Collectively, I believe we can get past MAGA, one voter at a time.
