How to Ensure the US Doesn't Elect Another Nero
By Tom Kagy | 24 Apr, 2025

Equitable status for non-college grads would reduce support for ego-driven leaders and their doom-loop dynamics of narcissist and co-dependent acolytes.

Psychology has no trouble explaining the Trump presidency: many Americans have low self-esteem, making them fatally drawn to narcissistic, authoritarian leaders.

"Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by feelings of grandiosity, a sense of entitlement, and a craving for respect and admiration," explains a recent Scientific American piece on the tendency of children to accept narcissists as leaders.

"It’s part of what psychologists call the “dark triad” of personality traits—along with psychopathy and Machiavellianism, or cold, strategic manipulation for personal gain," the article continues.  "In adulthood, narcissism may develop into a narcissistic personality disorder."

Apparently 6% of Americans meet the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder, though of course many never get a formal diagnosis as such.

That diagnosis seems tragically apt for the man in the White House to any American who has suffered the recent series of zany attention-grabbing pronouncements that have turned the United States into both a global laughingstock and a black hole that sucks rationality  into oblivion.  The combination of lawless deportations and insane on-again off-again tariff pronouncements have devastated both social stability and business confidence.

So how does psychology explain why so many children hail narcissists as leaders?

"We found that when followers with low self-esteem had a narcissistic leader, they perceived the leader as more effective and were more likely to endorse them for future leadership roles than did their peers with higher self-esteem," found the Childhood Leadership Study conducted by the author at the University of Amsterdam.  "What’s more, they felt more included in the group, perceived greater group cohesion, felt better about themselves and were more inclusive toward others when they had a narcissistic leader."

And it seems narcissistic kids liked leading peers with low self-esteem. "They bullied them less and were more inclusive toward them," says the study author.  "We believe this is because followers with low self-esteem don’t threaten the narcissistic leader’s position. Rather, they follow the leader—allowing the child in charge to shine and feel secure in their superiority."

So far so good.  Narcissists treat the "losers" among their peers better than those who pose a threat.  That would suggest narcissists are good leaders.  So what is the outcome of the relationships between narcissistic leaders and their followers?  

"Unsurprisingly, more narcissistic children perceived themselves as better leaders," found the study upon separating subjects into various groups with different personality types serving as leaders.  "Yet compared with their less narcissistic peers, they did not lead their group to perform better, exhibit stronger leadership (such as by delegating tasks) or receive higher ratings from their group members."

Okay, but what about among adults?  Do narcissistic personalities mellow with age into superior leaders?  

Not according to a a meta-analysis by organizational psychologist Emily Grijalva at the University of Buffalo who found that while narcissistic adults tend to emerge as leaders, they don't do well in such roles.

Yet people who are insecure about themselves or the world tend to identify with groups led by a narcissists "who makes grandiose claims, lacks empathy and shares fantasies of unlimited success," according to Michael Hogg, a social psychologist at Claremont Graduate University.

Unfortunately, this seemingly made-in-heaven symbiosis between narcissistic leaders and low-self-esteem followers tend to end badly. 

"Over time, this dynamic may develop into a toxic cycle of dependency," concludes Hogg's study.  "Followers may reinforce narcissistic leaders’ growing dominance, while leaders may reinforce the followers’ growing submissiveness."

This conclusion is reinforced by a 2018 study by Barbara Nevicka at the University of Amsterdam of leader-follower dyads among adults working in different organizations and across different industries.

"Followers with low self-esteem perceived narcissistic leaders as abusive, which led them to underperform and feel burned out," she found.  "Thus, even though being led by a narcissistic leader might feel reassuring initially, it can ultimately make those with low self-esteem more vulnerable to harm."

The Scientific Anerican piece notes that it isn't easy to avoid narcissistic leaders because they tend to rise quickly in a society like the United States in which individuality is held up as a healthy trait.  The dark side of the narcissistic nature doesn't get revealed until it's too late — as Americans are now discovering.

So what's the solution for a society that seems particularly susceptible to subjecting itself to the turmoil and inefficiencies brought on by the drama-queen antics of narcissistic leaders?  Elevating the self-esteem and sense of security of enough Americans who feel downtrodden to make it unlikely that an ego-driven demagogues can attract a critical mass of support.

Ironically the solution would entail implementing additional government educational policies that appear to be anathema to the followers of the current manifestation of unprincipled demagoguery: establish an Education Department program to create a parallel technical/trade track that would elevates the status of students with little academic potential.

The reality is that only about 20% of Americans (or any people) have an aptitude for acquiring the kind of abstract skills and knowledge needed for most professional occupations.  Yet our society lionizes academic success and entry into elite universities while belittling students whose talents run toward more practical skills.  

Our society needs skilled technicians and tradespeople as much as, or perhaps more than, it needs more doctors, lawyers, academics and investment bankers.  The plight of perhaps 5 - 6 million unemployed college-graduates in China illustrates how society loses when it focuses on a narrow pathway to success and ignores a broad cross-section of abilities possessed by young people. 

Of course the current anti-education climate may make it difficult to appropriate budgets to establish an Education Department program to support secondary-school apprenticeship programs for future technicians and tradespeople.  But perhaps when the current White House occupant tires of fomenting chaos and comes to his senses one of his people might suggest such a program as aiding the children of the voters who put him in the White House.