Did charisma “Trump” narcissism in 2016? Leader narcissism, attributed charisma, value congruence and voter choice

Personality and Individual Differences Volume 130, 1 August 2018, Pages 11-17 Author links open overlay panelEthlyn A.WilliamsaRajnandiniPillaibBryan J.DeptulacKevin B.LowedKateMcCombsa https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.03.010 a Florida Atlantic University, Department of Management Programs, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431, United States b California State University San Marcos, College of Business Administration, 333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Rd., San Marcos, CA 92096, United States c NOVA Southeastern University, Huizenga College of Business, 3301 College Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314, United States d The University of Sydney, Business School, Rm 4048, H70 - Abercrombie Building, NSW 2006 Australia Received 4 November 2017, Revised 2 February 2018, Accepted 6 March 2018, Available online 5 April 2018. Get rights and content Highlights • A negative relationship exists between leader narcissism and voter choice. • A negative relationship exists between leader narcissism and attributed charisma. • Leader narcissism and attributed charisma are both predictors of voter choice. • Charisma partially mediated the relationship between leader narcissism and voter choice for Clinton. • Value congruence strengthened the relationship between attributed charisma and voter choice for Trump. Abstract Grandiose narcissism has been associated with negative outcomes and research suggests its potential to predict positive and negative leadership behaviors. We examined perceived leader narcissism, attributed charisma, and voter choice in the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Narcissism was found to be negatively related to attributions of charisma and voter choice, and had an indirect effect on voter choice through attributed charisma. Value congruence moderated the relationship between attributed charisma and voter choice. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the mixed results in earlier research regarding the relationship between perceived leader narcissism and attributed charisma, and highlights attributed charisma as an intervening factor in understanding leader selection. Previous article in issue Next article in issue Keywords Narcissism Leader Attributed charisma Voter choice Value congruence 1. Introduction Narcissism is common among U.S. presidents and is associated with negative outcomes such as facing impeachment (e.g., Nixon and Clinton) and engaging in unethical behaviors to achieve objectives (e.g., L. B. Johnson) (Watts et al., 2013). However, narcissistic qualities are also likely to attract voters because narcissistic leaders are capable of inspiring their followers with a call to action and grand visions for an attainable future. Because of the grand visions held by narcissists, they are often described as charismatic (Deluga, 1997). 1.1. Background Narcissistic individuals display an inflated sense of self-importance, unjustifiably high self-esteem, unwillingness to accept critical feedback, dominance, aggression, and entitlement (Campbell, Bosson, Goheen, Lakey, & Kernis, 2007). Despite evidence that narcissism can be a destructive leadership trait (Judge, Piccolo, & Kosalka, 2009) that negatively affects group performance (Nevicka, Ten Velden, De Hoogh, & Van Vianen, 2011), narcissists continue to emerge as leaders (Brunell et al., 2008). Thus, narcissism presents an interesting duality that has been described as the “bright side/dark side” phenomenon (Watts et al., 2013). Candidates in presidential elections are often described as having charisma (Deluga, 1997), and these attributions refer to perceptions that the leader articulates goals, projects success and self-confidence, and arouses the emotion of followers (Bass, 1985). The relationship between narcissism and charisma has been a topic of interest in studies of presidential leadership (Deluga, 1997) and the implications for leader selection require future study. Examining the role of value congruence (perceptions that the leader and follower share the same values: Kalliath, Bluedorn, & Strube, 1999) in leader selection is also important to further understand the role of the follower. These concepts have international relevance because we see so many examples of narcissistic and charismatic leaders in both democratic and authoritarian countries around the world (e.g., India, France, China, and Venezuela). Interestingly, there has not been much research on narcissism or its relationship to leadership in cross-cultural contexts (Grijalva & Harms, 2014) and it is possible that it may be manifested differently in different cultures (Heine & Hamamura, 2007) based on cultural norms. 1.2. Purpose and contribution Given mixed findings that grandiose narcissism produces negative as well as positive follower reactions, this research examines the roles of narcissism, attributed charisma, and value congruence in leader selection within the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Spurred by the mixed results reported in earlier research (Deluga, 1997; Grijalva, Harms, Newman, Gaddis, & Fraley, 2015; Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006), we examine the relationship between leader narcissism and attributed charisma using real-time follower perceptions during the election cycle. Second, we address the call for more research on the process of leadership selection especially with respect to narcissism within the context of politics (Campbell, Hoffman, Campbell, & Marchisio, 2011). Third, by examining the moderating role of value congruence, we answer the call for more research on the role of the follower (Lord & Brown, 2004). Finally, we respond to the need to understand charisma in a mediating role (Antonakis, Bastardoz, Jacquart, & Shamir, 2016). The model that guides this research examines the association between perceived leader narcissism, attributions of charisma, and voter choice (Fig. 1). Fig. 1 Download high-res image (59KB)Download full-size image Fig. 1. Study model. 2. Hypothesis development 2.1. Narcissism Presidential elections are an especially salient context to evaluate the relationship between narcissism and leader selection, given that voters have prolonged access to candidates that allows sufficient time for the “ugly side of narcissism to emerge” (Grijalva, Harms, Newman, Gaddis, and Fraley, 2015, p. 28). Over time, negative qualities emerge such as arrogance and self-centeredness that damage narcissists' relationships (Back, Schmukle, & Egloff, 2010) suggesting that narcissism may have a negative association with leader selection. Narcissists are assertive (Hart, Adams, Burton, & Tortoriello, 2017) and adept at positioning themselves for leadership roles by volunteering for challenging tasks (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006), seeking activities that glorify themselves (Wallace & Baumeister, 2002), and exaggerating their leadership abilities (Judge, LePine, & Rich, 2006). Nevertheless, narcissistic leaders often inspire followers through visioning and making calls to action based on themes of selflessness and self-sacrifice (Campbell et al., 2007; Sedikides & Campbell, 2017). With respect to the 2 presidential candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, Clinton and Trump, Clinton was viewed as untrustworthy (Brooks, 2016) and Trump as untruthful (Levingston, 2016). Narcissism is associated with lower scores on some HEXACO personality (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience) elements such as Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (Visser, Book, & Volk, 2017). Visser et al. (2017) reported that Clinton shared two HEXACO traits with darker personalities (low scores on Honesty-Humility and Emotionality) and Trump's HEXACO profile was closer to matching a darker personality (scores low on Honesty-Humility and Emotionality and additionally low on Conscientiousness and Agreeableness). While research suggests that narcissistic leaders might be charismatically inspiring by passionately articulating a socialized “values-based, symbolic and emotion-laden” vision (Antonakis, et al., 2016, p. 3040), perceptions of dark traits are likely to negatively affect voters' views of them. We, therefore, hypothesize that: Hypothesis 1 Perceptions of leader narcissism will have a negative association with attributions of charisma. Hypothesis 2 Perceptions of leader narcissism will have a negative association with voter choice. 2.2. Narcissism, attributed charisma, and voter choice Leaders have attributed charisma when they appeal to themes of unity and shared values, use symbolism to emphasize a collective future, and communicate conviction in their ability to succeed when leading (Banks et al., 2017). Narcissism has been found to relate positively to charisma in organizational leaders (House & Howell, 1992), as well as charismatic leadership, performance, and creativity among U.S. Presidents (Deluga, 1997). Thus, dedication to the pursuit of a vision and striving for dynamic change appear to be among the prototypical leader characteristics that impel followers to attribute charisma (Epitropaki & Martin, 2004) and to vote for leaders with charisma (Rapoport, Metcalf, & Hartman, 1989). Prior research highlights the need to examine the process through which the complex relationship between narcissism and leadership operates. For example, Sosik, Chun, and Zhu (2014) used a process model to show that the more destructive the narcissistic personality, the lower the positive effects that charisma had on follower psychological empowerment and moral identity. Alternatively, positive leader characteristics such as humility may mitigate the negative effects of narcissism on evaluations of leaders (Owens, Wallace, & Waldman, 2015). Research suggests a complex association between leader selection, narcissism, and charisma. A leader may be manipulative, and self-interested with low self-doubt (dark side narcissistic traits), even while faithful followers simultaneously view them as “supportive, sensitive, nurturing, and considerate” (House & Howell, 1992). Based on previous research, we examine whether the typically positive effects of attributed charisma mediate the potentially negative effects of perceived leader narcissism on leader selection. We hypothesize that: Hypothesis 3 Perceptions of leader narcissism will have an indirect negative effect on voter choice through attributed charisma. 2.3. Attributed charisma, value-congruence, and voter choice Charismatic leaders communicate values-based messages (Kong, 2013) that unite followers through value congruence. This, in turn, allows followers to identify closely with the leader and influences follower ratings of the leader (Brown & Treviño, 2009; Williams, Pillai, Deptula, & Lowe, 2012). Banks et al. (2017) posit that charismatic leaders may strive to communicate universal values that are intended to increase compatibility among followers and encourage harmonious relations. When followers perceive value congruence with leaders, they are acknowledging that they have shared values (Kalliath et al., 1999). When followers identify with the values of the leader, attributions of leader charisma likely has a stronger effect on voter choice. The role of value congruence is particularly relevant in the context of a Presidential election because voters select a leader who will have a major impact on their lives for the foreseeable future. Value congruence with a leader should make their selection more attractive and thus strengthen the relationship between charisma and voter choice. Hypothesis 4 The relationship between attributed charisma and voter choice is moderated by value congruence such that the relationship is stronger when value congruence is high. 3. Methods 3.1. Participants We administered a pre-election survey to a Qualtrics panel (qualtrics.com, 2017; Dumas, Phillips, & Rothbard, 2013) of six hundred and fifty participants responding to questions on leadership and leader evaluations for the Democratic (Clinton) and Republican (Trump) candidates for president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The final sample consisted of 426 participants who also completed the post-election survey indicating voter choice. Participants were prescreened for the following: registered voter and 18 years of age or older and represented the national population geographic spread by region based on the census data (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015) with 19.7% of the sample representing the Northeast, 21.1% Midwest, 38.5% South, and 20.74% West. The sample was 65.5 female with 81.4% White, and mean age of 52.8 years (range: 20 to 95 years, with 76.6% between 25 and 64 years). Republicans represented 33.1% of the sample, Democrats 38.2%, Independents 26.2%, and 2.6% “other” with 41.3% indicating they voted for Clinton, 47.9% for Trump, 6.1% for “other”, and 4.7% did not vote. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2016: Tables 1 and 4b), 53.6% of those registered to vote that voted were female, 81.5% were White, and 67.4% were 25–64 years of age. Lastly, about 48.2% voted for Clinton while about 46.10% voted for Trump (CNN.com, 2016; U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). 3.2. Procedure The pre-election survey was administered two weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the post-election questionnaire was administered one week after the election. Given a possible population (registered voters) of 157,596,000 the recommended sample size to allow for a 5% margin of error is 385 (Raosoft, 2004; Shaw, Whitbread, & Fothergill, 2016). 3.3. Measures The thirty-three item measure of grandiose narcissism (Foster, McCain, Hibberts, Brunell, & Johnson, 2015) was employed as the measure of perceived leader narcissism. Items were developed to represent grandiose narcissism at both global and facet levels and replicated Raskin and Terry's (1988) seven narcissistic personality inventory (NPI) subscales: tapping authority (preferring to be in charge), self-sufficiency (preferring to do things on one's own), superiority (belief that one is better than others), vanity (strong focus on physical appearance), exhibitionism (acting in ways that grab others' attention), entitlement (belief that one is deserving of special treatment), and exploitativeness (willingness to take advantage of others). The measure developed demonstrated reliability and correlates with the NPI (Foster et al., 2015). We employed scale anchors with 1 representing “strongly disagree” and 5 representing “strongly agree”. The coefficient alpha of reliability (α) was 0.92 for Clinton and 0.93 for Trump. The eight-item attributed charisma scale from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was employed (Bass & Avolio, 1990), capturing follower attributions through identification and connection with the vision. A sample item is, “Instills pride in being associated with her/him.” A seven-point scale ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to 7 “strongly agree” was employed (α 0.96 for Clinton and 0.95 for Trump). The measure of value congruence was taken from Jung and Avolio (2000) to capture shared values between a leader and follower. The measure has 3 items with a sample item: “I fully support his/her core values.” The response scale employed is a five-point response scale ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly agree” (α 0.76 for Clinton and 0.79 for Trump). On the post-election questionnaire, respondents indicated who they voted for. The response choices provided were: Clinton, Trump, Other, or Did not vote. The variable was coded into two separate vote variables for each candidate: (1) 1 for “Candidate (Clinton or Trump)” and 0 for “all others”. This approach helps to present the mutually exclusive interest on the main category for comparison to the other categories as a whole (Williams et al., 2012). 3.4. Controls Party affiliation, age, gender, and race were included as covariates because we expected younger, female and minority voters to play a role in the outcomes of interest. For party affiliation, two variables were created “Democrat” or “Republican” and were coded 1 for affiliation and 0 for “all others”. Voter age was provided in years, gender was coded as “1” for males and “0” for females, and race was coded as 1 for “white” and 0 for “all other races”. We also included a measure of social desirability in responding (SDRS) to address social desirability response tendencies using a 5 item scale (Hays, Hayashi, & Stewart, 1989). Controlling for SDRS is discussed in clinical psychology research as a method for addressing bias (e.g., Reynolds, 1982). A sample item is, “I sometimes try to get even rather than forgive and forget.” A five-point scale ranging from 1 “definitely true” to 5 “definitely false” was employed (α = 71). Involvement was operationalized as overall interest in the political process with a measure by Driskell, Embry, and Lyon (2008) using 3 items reflecting accessing information from a variety of sources (internet, news stories, and debates) measured on a 5 point scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree, α = 0.65). Perceptions of crisis were measured to control for selection pressure using a validated four-item of measure of crisis (Williams et al., 2012). A five-point response scale ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly agree” on “issues you think are important in selecting the next president” was employed. A sample item is “The domestic problems facing the nation are severe” (α = 0.81). 4. Results Table 1 presents the means and standard deviations and t-tests for the study variables. Table 1. Means and standard deviations, t-test for Clinton and Trump. Measures Mean SD t-Test (p) 95% confidence interval 1. Age 52.78 13.70 2. Gender 0.35 0.48 3. Race 0.84 0.37 4. Party affiliation (Democrat; Republican) (0.47; 0.44) (0.75; 0.75) 0.63 (0.53) [−0.05, 0.11] 5. SDRS 2.34 0.69 6. Involvement 3.92 0.85 7. Crisis 3.99 0.76 8. Narcissism (Clinton; Trump) (3.55; 4.16) (0.65; 0.58) −14.73 (0.00) [−0.69, −0.53] 9. Attributed charisma (Clinton; Trump) (2.86; 2.77) (1.25; 1.22) 0.85 (0.40) [−0.12, 0.31] 10. Value congruence (Clinton; Trump) (2.99; 3.01) (1.15; 1.20) −0.23 (0.82) [−0.22, 0.18] 11. Voter choice (Clinton; Trump) (0.41; 0.48) (0.49; 0.50) −1.44 (0.15) [−0.16, 0.02] Statistical significance is highlighted with boldface. Party affiliation has positive associations with the main variables of interest (except narcissism, no association) for both candidates (r = 0.24 to 0.34, p < 0.001). Crisis perceptions were positively associated with perceived leader narcissism for Clinton and negatively associated with attributed charisma, value congruence and voter choice for Clinton (r = 0.17, p < 0.001; r = −0.35, p < 0.001; r = −0.33, p < 0.001; r = −0.37, p < 0.001). Crisis perceptions were not associated with perceived leader narcissism for Trump and positively associated with attributed charisma, value congruence, and voter choice for Trump (r = −0.06, p = 0.20; r = 0.38, p < 0.001; r = 0.39, p < 0.001; r = 0.40, p < 0.001). Age was positively associated with perceived leader narcissism for both candidates (Clinton and Trump; r = 0.11, p = 0.03; r = 0.12, p = 0.01) and also associated with voter choice for Trump (r = 0.10, p = 0.03). Gender was negatively associated with attributed charisma, value congruence, and voter choice for Clinton (r = −0.18, p < 0.001; r = −0.12, p = 0.01; r = −0.13, p = 0.01); but had positive associations for Trump (r = 0.14, p = 0.002; r = 0.11, p = 0.02; r = 0.14, p = 0.003). Race was positively associated with perceptions of leader narcissism for both candidates (Clinton and Trump; r = 0.14, p = 0.002; r = 0.14, p = 0.004); race had negative associations with attributed charisma, value congruence, and voter choice for Clinton (r = −0.25, p < 0.001; r = −0.24, p < 0.001; r = −0.25, p < 0.001) and positive associations with these variables for Trump (r = 0.20, p < 0.001; r = 0.17, p < 0.001; r = 0.26, p < 0.001). Involvement was associated with perceived leader narcissism for Trump (r = 0.12, p = 0.01) and was associated with attributed charisma, value congruence, and voter choice for Clinton (r = 0.16, p = 0.001; r = 0.17, p = 0.001; r = 0.13, p = 0.006). We used SPSS version 24 to conduct hierarchical regression analyses to examine the relationships between the variables; logistic regression was employed in order to appropriately address the dichotomous dependent variable “vote” (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1992). The PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2015) in SPSS was employed to examine indirect effects and the mediating role of attributed charisma on the relationship between perceived leader narcissism and vote. No models exhibited problems with multicollinearity, with no variance inflation factor >3. Tables 2 and 3 present the results of the tests of our hypotheses. As predicted by Hypotheses 1 and 2, perceptions of leader narcissism were negatively related to attributed charisma (Table 2) and voter choice (Table 3, Step 2). In testing Hypothesis 3, for Clinton, there was an indirect relationship between perceptions of leader narcissism and voter choice, through attributed charisma as hypothesized. For Clinton's leader narcissism, the bootstrapped unstandardized indirect effect was −0.59, and the 95% confidence interval ranged from −1.07 to −0.14. For Trump's leader narcissism, the bootstrapped unstandardized indirect effect was −0.60, and the 95% confidence interval ranged from −1.28 to, 0.05. Overall there were direct (for Clinton and Trump) and partially mediated effects (for Clinton) of narcissism (Table 3, Step 3) on voter choice. Table 2. Results of regression analysis for leader narcissism and attributed charisma. Attributed Charisma (Clinton) Attributed Charisma (Trump) Variables bc β 95% confidence interval (β) p b β 95% confidence interval (β) p aStep 1: Age 0.00 0.03 [−0.01, 0.01] 0.47 0.00 −0.04 [−0.01, 0.01] 0.42 Gender −0.40 −0.15 [−0.64, −0.14] 0.00 0.30 0.12 [0.07, 0.53] 0.01 Race −0.74 −0.22 [−1.05, −0.44] 0.00 0.51 0.15 [0.22, 0.78] 0.00 Party Affiliation (Dem., Repub.) 0.35 0.21 [0.15, 0.66] 0.00 0.35 0.21 [0.17, 0.59] 0.00 Social Desirability −0.07 −0.04 [−0.22, 0.09] 0.38 −0.08 −0.05 [−0.24, 0.08] 0.29 Involvement 0.32 0.22 [0.19, 0.44] 0.00 −0.04 −0.03 [−0.18, 0.09] 0.52 Crisis −0.54 −0.33 [−0.68, −0.39] 0.00 0.55 0.35 [0.43, 0.68] 0.00 bStep 2: Leader Narcissism −0.31 −0.16 [−0.52, −.011] 0.00 −0.26 −0.12 [−0.54, −0.04] 0.00 Dem. = Democrat; Repub. = Republican. Statistical significance is highlighted with boldface. a Model-fit statistics for Step 1 (Clinton; Trump): adjusted R2 = 0.29, F(7, 418) = 25.312 p < 0.001; adjusted R2 = 0.23, F(7, 418) = 18.64 p < 0.001. b Model-fit statistics for Step 2 (Clinton; Trump): adjusted R2 = 0.31, F(8, 417) = 24.66 p < 0.001; F change 14.37, p < 0.001; adjusted R2 = 0.24, F(8, 417) = 20.01 p < 0.001; F change 7.94, p < 0.01. c unstandardized coefficient Table 3. Results of regression analysis for voter choice of Clinton or Trump. Variables Vote (Clinton) Vote (Trump) β 95% confidence interval (β) p β 95% confidence interval (β) p aStep 1 Age −0.00 [−0.02, 0.02] 0.92 0.01 [−0.01, 0.03] 0.39 Gender −0.57 [−1.15, 0.05] 0.03 0.44 [−0.10, 1.02] 0.09 Race −1.53 [−2.41, −0.86] 0.00 1.67 [1.02, 2.60] 0.00 Affiliation (Dem., Repub.) 0.72 [0.28, 1.59] 0.00 1.20 [0.49, 2.29] 0.00 Social desirability 0.00 [−0.38, 0.39] 0.98 0.13 [−0.27, 0.52] 0.46 Involvement 0.64 [0.34, 0.99] 0.00 −0.23 [−0.55, 0.09] 0.13 Crisis −1.26 [−1.71, −0.94] 0.00 1.41 [1.07, 1.92] 0.00 bStep 2 Leader narcissism −1.04 [−1.65, −0.62] 0.00 −0.87 [−0.15, −0.34] 0.00 cStep 3 (Leader narcissism) −0.82 [−1.56, −0.04] 0.004 −0.82 [−1.12, 0.17] 0.01 Attributed charisma 1.92 [1.59, 2.83] 0.00 2.32 [1.92, 3.33] 0.00 dAlternate Step 2 Attributed charisma (AC) −0.26 [−2.56, 2.65] 0.71 −0.37 [−2.44, 1.84] 0.66 Value congruence (VC) −0.81 [−3.18, 2.09] 0.30 −0.61 [−2.16, 1.11] 0.43 AC ∗ VC 0.56 [−0.30, 1.48] 0.02 0.68 [0.08, 1.35] 0.02 Dem. = Democrat; Repub. = Republican. Statistical significance is highlighted with boldface. a Model-fit statistics for Step 1 (Clinton, Trump): Nagelkerke R2 = 0.37, 0.41; −2 log likelihood (Model χ2 Improvement) = 441.86 (132.78, p < 0.001); 431.31 (158.49, p < 0.001). b Model-fit statistics for Step 2 (Clinton, Trump): Nagelkerke R2 = 0.43, 0.45; −2 log likelihood (Model χ2 Improvement) = 413.69 (28.17, p < 0.001); 415.18 (16.13, p < 0.001). c Model-fit statistics for Step 3 (Clinton, Trump): Nagelkerke R2 = 0.73, 0.78; −2 log likelihood (Model χ2 Improvement) = 244.39 (169.30, p < 0.001); 218.46 (196.73, p < 0.001). d Model-fit statistics for Alternate Step 2 (Clinton, Trump): Nagelkerke R2 = 0.75, 0.80; −2 log likelihood (Model χ2 Improvement) = 232.32 (209.54, p < 0.001); 198.17 (233.14, p < 0.001). Supporting Hypothesis 4, value congruence moderated the relationship between attributed charisma and voter choice for Trump. While the p value supported moderation for Clinton, the bootstrap results did not. Overall, there was as stronger positive relationship when there was high value congruence than when there was low value congruence (Table 3, Alternate Step 2). Results are shown in Fig. 2 for Clinton and Fig. 3 for Trump for the condition of high value congruence (Clinton: simple slope at +1 SD: γ = 2.1 p < 0.001; Trump: simple slope at +1 SD: γ = 2.5 p < 0.001) and low value congruence (Clinton: simple slope at +1 SD: γ = 0.78 p = 0.022; Trump: simple slope at +1 SD: γ = 0.81 p = 0.016). Fig. 2 Download high-res image (42KB)Download full-size image Fig. 2. Voter choice for Clinton as a function of attributed charisma and value congruence. Fig. 3 Download high-res image (45KB)Download full-size image Fig. 3. Voter choice for Trump as a function of attributed charisma and value congruence. 5. Discussion Our findings indicate that (a) a negative relationship exists between narcissism and voter choice; (b) charisma partially mediated the relationship between narcissism and voter choice (for Clinton); (c) perceived narcissism and attributed charisma had direct effects on voter choice for Trump; and (d) value congruence strengthened the relationship between attributed charisma and voter choice for Trump. Results from this study suggest that narcissism and attributed charisma are both important predictors of voter choice and align with the work of Owens et al. (2015), reinforcing their finding that positive leader characteristics such as humility and, in this study, attributed charisma may serve as a counterbalance to narcissism. 5.1. Implications These findings are relevant to the psychology of leader selection because it helps to explain the complex relationship between narcissism and charisma by examining the role of leader personality traits and follower attributions when selecting leaders. As highlighted by Vugt and Ronay (2014), leaders are selected for charismatic characteristics such as persistence, decisiveness, and vision: yet in human history over time, leadership selection might hinge on having a dominant personality as well as health, stamina, and imposing physique. These biases for leader prototypes continue and may be especially true when the selection involves the position of the “most powerful leader in the world” or leaders in other emerging powerful nations (e.g., China, India, Russia). One implication of our findings is that charisma - which emphasizes not only vision but also the way in which the candidate delivers that vision, “displaying a sense of power and confidence” (Bass & Avolio, 1990) - might weigh heavily in the leader selection decision-making process of voters in addition to narcissism. It appears that for voters, if a charismatic leader is viewed as able to communicate visions of a promising future, the negatives associated with narcissism might be overlooked in favor of the charismatic qualities that can lead to the achievement of the desired vision. In an analysis of U.S. Presidents, Watts et al. (2013) found that extraversion served as a suppressor for negative outcomes of grandiose narcissism. Their finding that narcissism among U.S. presidents has increased over time highlights the importance of examining what factors act as a counterbalance in predicting outcomes. Research that seeks to understand the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election has emphasized the importance of charisma in leader selection (Visser et al., 2017) and we cautiously suggest that charisma may indeed “trump” narcissism. However, longitudinal studies are needed to establish the effects over time as charismatic attributions may rise and fall as many a leader has discovered (Davis & Gardner, 2012). Our findings go beyond traditional models in which leader traits and behaviors are the sole predictors of leader emergence. Prior findings support the existence of a positive relationship between leader-follower value congruence and followers' attitudes and evaluations of leaders (Williams et al., 2012). Our results suggest that the perceived value congruence might strengthen the relationship between charisma and leader selection. When voters attribute charisma to a candidate and also believe that they share similar values, this may allow voters to more fully embrace the candidate. Gathering data both before and after an election, as we did, is vitally important for understanding leader selection. In the case of presidential elections, exhaustive media coverage of candidates for more than two years ahead of leader selection provides the perception of familiarity with candidates' traits. Narcissists skillfully weave narratives of themselves as heroes of their own life stories into celebrity figures (Young & Pinsky, 2006), providing multiple opportunities to establish familiarity with them as candidates in the election. With the power of modern social media, this effect can get amplified and is worthy of further study in the context of leader selection. 5.2. Limitations Our study has several limitations. First, all reports were captured from one source albeit over time, before and after the elections. Second, while the measures employed have strong psychometric properties based on their use in previous research, the measure of value congruence included only 3 basic items rather than extensive descriptions. This measure, however, has been found useful in other research that examines transformational leadership in crisis situations (Zhang, Jia, & Gu, 2012). The measure of charisma captures attributions rather than behaviors but is an integral part of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 1990) and is widely used for assessing charisma (Banks et al., 2017). Third, while we accounted for perceptions of crisis to indicate concern about domestic and foreign issues, we did not directly examine concern about the economy. We did, however, capture open-ended responses about issues that influence the voting decision and when “economy” was noted as an area of concern we coded this as “1” for yes and “0” for inclusion in post hoc analyses. The only change to our results was stronger support for Hypothesis 3 with indirect effects of narcissism on voter choice for Clinton and Trump. Finally, our research is focused on one presidential election in the U.S., albeit the most recent one, which may limit the generalizability of our findings for leader selection to other settings and cultures. Arguably, in collectivistic societies, narcissism may have more negative implications for leadership because such societies may devalue a focus on the self and high levels of ambition (Watts et al., 2013). However, given the number of narcissistic leaders in many of these cultures (e.g., Presidents Modi in India, Xi Jinping in China), it is also possible that such cultures accept the cult of the charismatic and narcissistic leader. Research that replicates and extends the model tested here in future presidential elections across cultures will help to build our knowledge base of these critical relationships. 5.3. Strengths Limitations notwithstanding, our research makes a number of contributions. First, follower perceptions of leaders, captured in advance of reports of their decision to select a leader to help us better understand the interplay of leader trait, attribute, and leader-follower value similarity. Second, SDRS (Hays et al., 1989) was not correlated with study variables and therefore did not appear to bias our findings. Third, our sample was representative of U.S. voters by region and represented a cross-section of age ranges. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine narcissism in the context of a presidential election using candidates being selected in real time during the election by a sample of voters representative of the general voting population. Fourth, by gathering respondents' psychological evaluations of the candidates in real time, using established measures of narcissism, charisma, and value congruence, the present study goes beyond prior studies of presidential narcissism that have used historians as raters and historical data as criteria (e.g., Watts et al., 2013). 5.4. Future research The present research suggests that grandiose narcissism might hinder attempts to win support for selection into leadership roles unless the candidate is also perceived as a charismatic leader with whom followers/voters share values. Hoffman et al. (2013) hypothesized that narcissism would be negatively related to leader effectiveness and ethical leadership, but did not find support for direct relationships. Brown and Treviño (2009) highlight the possibility that moderated and mediated relationships might enhance the predictive nature of narcissism towards leader evaluations, as was shown in the present study. Thus, studies on the interplay among narcissism, charisma, and value congruence in influencing leader evaluations over time are needed to extend the present research. The current study highlights the dark side or negative effects of narcissism. However, future research is needed to further understand dark side effects and also the potential positives of “bright side” effects of narcissism on leader selection. Narcissists generally make a positive first impression, as others initially perceive them to be charming and self-confident (Back et al., 2010). One extension of the current research is to examine whether the positive imagery that narcissists build for themselves (Young & Pinsky, 2006) lasts or fades in longitudinal studies. For example, with increased exposure, and during critical incidents, the leader's authentic (and possibly dark side) self may be revealed to bring dramatic alterations in perceptions by followers (Grijalva et al., 2015). 5.5. Conclusion The current research examines the roles of narcissism, charisma, and value congruence in leader selection. Our findings indicate that higher levels of perceived narcissism diminish the prospects of a candidate being attributed charisma and being selected as a leader. However, the presence of charisma may temper the negative effects of narcissism on leader selection. We also note that value congruence strengthens the relationship between attributed charisma and voter choice. Thus, followers potentially look beyond negative leadership qualities to select those leaders who have redeeming positive attributes and values. Further research on the findings reported in our study is warranted in other settings. Continued theory building and empirical analysis are needed to explicate the role that narcissism plays in follower evaluations and selection of leaders. Compliance with ethical standards Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent: Local IRB approval was received and Informed Consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Data: The first authors can be contacted for information on storage of the data. This was part of a larger study on presidential leadership. The data has not been published elsewhere. There are no conflicts of interest. References Antonakis et al., 2016 J. Antonakis, N. Bastardoz, P. Jacquart, B. 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