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Think you could do a better job than Barack Obama or John McCain? To find out if you鈥檙e fit for the Oval Office, simply take this .
I came across the test while researching a story about how conscientious people live longer.
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The authors of that study, and Margaret Kern of the University of California at Riverside, cited George Washington as a prime example of someone unusually conscientious, noting that he lived to 67 鈥� about twice the expected lifespan in America at the time.
But Washington鈥檚 exemplary conscientiousness came to light in a remarkable study in 2000 led by , a forensic psychologist in Houston, Texas.
He and his colleagues made psychological assessments of all 41 US presidents prior to George W Bush. You can see the , where they ranked the presidents into eight different types, from 鈥渄ominators鈥� to 鈥渁ctors鈥�.
Extravert McCain
More recently, Rubenzer used the same tool to profile the three potential presidential candidates John McCain, Rudolf Guiliani and Hillary Clinton, presenting his results in July 2007 at the annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology in Portland, Oregon.
Unfortunately, the analysis didn鈥檛 include Barack Obama. 鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 enough quality biography on him to do so,鈥� Rubenzer says.
Compared with average scores of previous presidents, McCain scored strongly on the trait of 鈥渆xtraversion鈥�. However, he was below average on 鈥渁greeableness鈥� and 鈥渃onscientiousness鈥�. He also scored highly on 鈥渁ngry hostility鈥�, 鈥渋mpulsivity鈥�, 鈥渆xcitement seeking鈥�, 鈥減ositive emotions鈥� and 鈥渙penness to feelings鈥�, but was low on 鈥渃ompliance鈥� and 鈥渄eliberateness鈥�.
鈥淢cCain is most similar to presidents classified as extraverts such as Franklin D Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and John F Kennedy, and dominators, again including Theodore Roosevelt, and Andrew Jackson,鈥� Rubenzer says in the 2007 paper.
Both Guiliani and Hillary Clinton scored extremely low on agreeableness. In fact, on overall ratings, McCain came out best of the three.
鈥淢cCain shows the highest resemblance to a composite rating of better-that-average presidents,鈥� says Rubenzer. 鈥淭his may have been due to his higher extraversion than the other two.鈥�
In all his studies, Rubenzer asks biographers of individual presidents to rate the psychological characteristics of the president they had studied. As in the test above, they rated on a five-point scale the 鈥淏ig Five鈥� factors of personality (neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness), as well as rating the presidents for 30 sub-factors.
Great to be untidy
In all, the test gives 240 items of measurement for each president, and the researchers worked out which presidents were the 鈥済reatest鈥� by comparing them against each other, a kind of peer-versus-peer test.
Rubenzer and colleagues found that the most important traits for true greatness were 鈥渙penness鈥�, 鈥渁ssertiveness鈥� (a sub-set of extraversion) and 鈥渁chievement striving鈥� (a subset of conscientiousness).
鈥淐onscientiousness鈥� generally also emerged as a predictor of historical greatness, they say, and Washington came out highest on that measure, and Bill Clinton one of the lowest.
Perhaps surprisingly, the best presidents also need to be haphazard.
鈥淏eing a bit disorganised, like Abraham Lincoln, is somewhat of an asset for attaining historical greatness,鈥� they say. Perhaps less surprisingly, they also need to fib a bit rather than be straightforward, as a tactic to persuade people and achieve their ends.
鈥淭hey are not above tricking, cajoling, bullying or lying if necessary 鈥� they are true politicians, playing the right tune to each crowd,鈥� Rubenzer鈥檚 team reports.
Political spinners
So who were the arch 鈥渟pin doctors鈥�? Again, Roosevelt came up, as did Lyndon B Johnson.
But perhaps the trait of most vital importance is 鈥渙penness to experience鈥� 鈥� the ability to assimilate new values, emotions, feelings and aesthetics. This trait also correlates most strongly with intelligence, says Rubenzer.
鈥淕reat presidents are attentive to their emotions, willing to question traditional values and try new ways of doing things, imaginative and more interested in art and beauty than less successful ones,鈥� say the researchers. 鈥淗istorically great, high-openness presidents include Jefferson and Lincoln.鈥�
So who was the greatest? Probably Washington, according to the researchers.
鈥淲ashington embodies the traditional virtues of duty, responsibility, self-discipline, leadership and courage,鈥� they write, although 鈥淗e falls quite short of the modern political commodities of warmth, empathy and open-mindedness.鈥�
It will be interesting to see which of these qualities wins through on November 5.
US Election 2008 鈥� Science and technology are at the heart of many of the issues facing the candidates. Find out more in our special report.
