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The Appeal of the Primal Leader: Human Evolution and Donald J. Trump
Open accessAbstract
Abstract Drawing on the distinction between dominance and prestige as two evolutionarily grounded strategies for attaining status in human groups, this essay examines an underappreciated feature of Donald Trump's appeal to the millions of American voters who elected him president in 2016—his uncanny ability to channel primal dominance. Like the alpha male of a chimpanzee colony, Trump leads (and inspires) through intimidation, bluster, and threat, and through the establishment of short-term, opportunistic relationships with other high-status agents. Whereas domain-specific expertise confers status in the prestige paradigm, dominant leaders derogate expertise in order to establish a direct, authoritarian connection to their constituency. Trump's leadership style derives readily from his personality makeup, which entails a combustible temperament mixture of high extraversion and low agreeableness, a motivational agenda centered on extreme narcissism, and an internalized life story that tracks the exploits of an intrepid warrior who must forever fight to win in a Hobbesian world of carnage.
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Trump lives in the exuberantly combative moment, fighting like a boxer to win the round, as if it were the last round he will ever fight.
“Instead, he lives in the exuberantly combative moment, fighting like a boxer to win the round, fighting furiously as if it were the last round he will ever fight (McAdams, 2017).”
From Narrative Identity and the Redemptive Self: An Intellectual Autobiography, with Occasional Critique (2024) · cites this paper as McAdams, 2017
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Research works printed but not linked: 6
- Duckitt, John, and Chris G. Sibley. 2010. "Personality, Ideology, Prejudice, and Politics: A Dual-process Motivational Model. " Journal of Personality 78:1861-94.
- Henrich, Joseph. 2016. The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Hetherington, Marc J., and Jonathan D. Weiler. 2011. Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Lausten, Lasse, and Michael B. Petersen. 2017. "Perceived Conflict and Leader Dominance: Individual and Contextual Factors behind Preferences for Dominant Leaders. " Political Psychology. doi:10.1111/pops.12403. · DOI
- Maner, Jon K., and Charleen R. Case. 2016. "Dominance and Prestige: Dual Strategies for Navigating Social Hierarchies. " In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, edited by Mark P. Zanna and James M. Olson, 40:129-80. New York: Elsevier.
- McAdams, Dan P. 2013. The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By. New York: Oxford University Press. . 2015. The Art and Science of Personality Development. New York: Guilford Press. . 2016. "The Mind of Donald Trump. " Atlantic, June, 76-90.
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Narrative Identity and the Redemptive Self: An Intellectual Autobiography, with Occasional Critique
McAdams, D. P. (2024) · Narrative Works · doi:10.7202/1108951ar · Cited by 9
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Metadata
- Authors
- McAdams, D. P.
- Corresponding author
- McAdams, Dan P.
- ORCID
- McAdams, Dan P.
- Venue
- Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture
- Publisher
- Raiya Academic International LLC
- Published
- 2017-12-31
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 1-14
- ISSN
- 2472-9876 (ISSN-L)
- 2472-9884
- OpenAlex
- W4242384613
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 3.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › History, Medicine, and Leadership
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
- Keywords
- Donald Trump, human evolution, political leadership, evolutionary psychology, populism, political appeal
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