Profiling Political Leaders: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Personality and Political Behavior

In an era in which the personalization of politics places individual leaders at the center of governance, understanding who political leaders are — their personalities, beliefs, and formative experiences — remains essential to explaining what they do in office. This panel welcomes research on the psychological profiling of political leaders and the analysis of political leadership as integral components of the political decision-making process. It also aims to advance our understanding of the psychological factors related to successful — and failed — leadership in different countries and cultures. We invite papers that evaluate the performance of political leaders and the factors shaping their political behavior and attitudes across different societies, drawing on a variety of analytical approaches that combine theoretical depth with cross-cultural breadth. These may include at-a-distance assessment techniques, psychobiography, operational code analysis, leadership trait analysis, and comparative case studies, among others. Authors may examine the cultural context, childhood and formative experiences, belief systems, personality traits, and other variables that shape leaders' political performance. Equally relevant are studies on leaders’ interaction with followers and advisers, their decision-making processes — particularly in crisis situations — and their policy attitudes. Contributions on leaders from all world regions and regime types are welcome, as are papers that reflect on the methodological challenges of assessing leaders across cultures.