The personality of a "cool president": perceived traits in the president of El Salvador

Abstract

Sociopolitical literature currently recognizes the ongoing processes of democratic deterioration, the rise of populist leaders and the personalization of politics. In these circumstances, the study of the personality of political figures becomes increasingly relevant and interesting. This study explores the personality traits attributed to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele by a sample of Social Sciences and Humanities students and professionals (N = 258). An online questionnaire was administered at the beginning of 2021 that included some sociodemographic data, measures of the Big Five, the Dark Tetrad, and the Light Triad of personality. Results show that both samples perceive the president’s personality as extroverted, but professionals attribute general traits to him that are more extreme (e.g., emotional instability), dark (e.g., narcissism) and less luminous (e.g., kantianism) than those reported by students. The research shows that the trait of humanism (i.e., valuing the dignity and honor of people) constitutes the main predictive trait of evaluating the president's management as more democratic, while sadism would be the one that most lead to perceiving him as like that of an extreme populist leader like Donald Trump. Some aspects, such as the implications of politicians’ personality for the good of democracy, the relevance of ideology, and the peculiarities of the scales used are discussed.