Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Summary: Handicapping the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle, employing the key presidential character traits identified by the American National Election Studies — competence, leadership, integrity, and empathy — and psychological profiles of Clinton and Trump, based on research conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.


Mar 17th, 2009

Summary: From Oprah Magazine: “Boring” might not be the first adjective that comes to mind to describe President Barack Obama, but it was “No Drama Obama” who assured the nation with his steady composure and won the White House. Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota, says the variable that most distinguishes Obama from the two previous presidents is conscientiousness.


Dec 10th, 2008

Summary: Thomas Fingar, Bush administration deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, suggests the Iraq war was as much the failure of policymakers as the product of the flawed intelligence on which they relied. … Decision-making on Iraq was marred by a strong sense of time pressure, a tendency among decision makers to seek concurrence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, and a directive leadership style in the White House — all of which are causes of groupthink. … According to the Gayle Report, the Department of Defense knew before the Iraq war started in 2003 of the threats of mines and roadside bombs in Iraq but did nothing to acquire Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles ahead of the invasion — a level of overconfidence symptomatic of groupthink.



Summary: On the fifth day of his write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman noted that Chuck Norris, in an article published Oct. 21, 2008 at HumanEvents.com, cited research conducted at Immelman’s Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.