Psychological analysis reveals 14 key traits that explain the president's die-hard supporters.

[RKP5637]

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/following-trump-off-cliff-psychological-analysis-reveals-14-key-traits-explain-presidents-die-hard-supporters/

"Following Trump ‘off a cliff’: Psychological analysis reveals 14 key traits that explain the president’s die-hard supporters"

Whether we want to or not, for the sake of America, we must try to understand the Donald Trump phenomenon, as it has completely swept the nation and also fiercely divided it. What is most baffling about it all is Trump’s apparent political invincibility. As he himself said even before he won the presidential election, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Some of the explanations come from a 2017 review paper published in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology by the psychologist and UC Santa Cruz professor Thomas Pettigrew. Others have been put forth as far back as 2016 by myself, a cognitive neuroscience and psychology researcher, in various articles and blog posts for publications like Psychology Today. A number of these were inspired by insights from psychologists like Sheldon Solomon, who laid the groundwork for the influential Terror Management Theory, and David Dunning, who did the same for the Dunning-Kruger effect

The psychological phenomena described below mostly pertain to those supporters who would follow Trump off a cliff. These are the people who will stand by his side no matter what scandals come to light, or what sort of evidence for immoral and illegal behavior surfaces.

More>>> https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/following-trump-off-cliff-psychological-analysis-reveals-14-key-traits-explain-presidents-die-hard-supporters/

[vlyons]

1. Here's my analysis

Trump supporters are stupid, bigoted, self-cherishing assholes.

[llmart]

4. You could have stopped after the word "stupid".

That's the one quality that you see in every single one of his supporters.

[Dustlawyer]

36. The bigger picture, in my opinion, is that Trumpsters and Republicans have

been systematically programmed by RW media like a cult. This overlays all of the points they make in the article.

[crazytown]

2. And this analysis is a Whitewash

Racism & Bigotry is put last - No. 14 with mealy mouthed qualifications. It’s No 1.

“

[Demit]

5. I think you missed a very important sentence in the article...

"This list will begin with the more benign reasons for Trump’s intransigent support, and as the list goes on, the explanations become increasingly worrisome, and toward the end, border on the pathological."

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. Critical sentence indeed.

I'm fascinated by #2 - The Brain’s Attention System Is More Strongly Engaged by Trump. Clearly these people do not have a brain remotely like mine. I couldn't manage to be engaged by him for more than about 10 seconds. He turns me off and always has. I never understood how anyone could lap up his verbal diarrhea like ice cream.

[GetRidOfThem]

16. in fact,...

...he is utterly boring!

[LisaM]

22. Same here, and I had the same response to Reagan (and to a lesser extent, GW Bush).

The minute Reagan opened his mouth, I had to leave the room. His sliminess just made me feel creeped out (still does). Trump makes me feel quite a bit the same way, I just hear his voice and I need to stop listening. I literally CANNOT listen to him. I still fail to understand the networks giving him so much airtime in 2015 and 2016, and how that upped their ratings. I couldn't watch him at all (though my SO was fascinated by the whole phenomenon and watched many of the rallies).

[Pacifist Patriot]

39. I cringe at impersonations of him.

Love the Alec Baldwin and Stephen Colbert stuff in terms of content, but even their Trump voices make my skin crawl.

[pbmus]

38. That's because he is always scamming....

He is on the scam all the time...

[crazytown]

15. So analysing the Nazi's we wait to the end No. 14, anti-Semitism.

Bigotary & Racism is the defining heart of MAGA. It informs and shapes the other characteristics The way the author has worded it is like, ‘it would be grossly unfair to say every Nazi is anti-Semitic’. Technically Correct but that totally misses the point.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Maybe they were born with a malfunctioning amygdala. or maybe they are just stupid. Or...

maybe they are simply functioning with their version of sacrifice.

Soldiers are trained to charge into battle when ordered, their fears overridden by loyalty to the platoon, company, battalion, etc. all the way up to country. Firefighters charge into burning buildings and cops confront dangerous criminals.

It seems to my un-academic mind that these attitudes are all linked, and heroism is somehow built into us. Whatever it is can also be perverted to certainly non-heroic attitudes. Loyalty to gangs and bad ideas is still loyalty.

[RKP5637]

7. Yes, IMO the amygdala has a lot to do with it ... in that they may be predispositioned to

this behavior more than other people, and tRump easily engages them because of their overdeveloped amygdala. ... perhaps ...

[GoCubsGo]

25. It's all a deep-seeded fear of "the other."

They're terrified of everything that does not belong in their comfortable, sheltered bubbles. About a third of the population is just naturally fearful. Anything that is "different" scares the shit out of them. Being on a "team" of people who are just like them makes them feel better. This is what people like Trump and the republicans have been able to exploit for decades.

[TreasonousBastard]

33. This is a huge part of it, and we suffer from it too, at times. It all..

seems to me to go back to our primitive ancestors-- "Don't trust Cave 42!"

We are a tribal species, and we collect together for various reasons. Outsiders, and their dreadful thoughts, are not welcome.

[imaginary girl]

8. Did I miss the mention of misogyny? Nt

[RKP5637]

9. I searched, I couldn't find it. Good point!!! n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. Big miss in my opinion. It's implicit in some of the traits, but should have been made explicit.

[imaginary girl]

32. Totally agree!

[lunasun]

10. Rec for priceless comments @ rawstory

[backscatter712]

11. The usual reasons are in this article.

And they're not wrong.

Bigotry, authoritarianism, maliciousness, crying about relative deprivation, voting from the reptile brain.

People tell me I should be more charitable towards Trump-heads. Nope. I have nothing but contempt for them. Even if they're not personally bigoted, they indicated they're fine with it from others.

Sorry, Trump Trash are still garbage human beings.

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. It's worth seeing all of this in one place, but as he says it's just a high level gloss.

There are excellent articles that address each of these individually in more detail. This summary should be seen as a reminder that Trump's appeal was not to a particular kind of voter that became his base, but rather his base is comprised of a coalition of different types of voters subject to manipulation by a variety of means. And each Trump die-hard supporter can't be neatly tucked into one of these fourteen boxes. Each one likely possesses multiple traits in an astounding array of combinations.

My clinical pastoral education was focused on personality disorders, which is one of the reasons I've been screaming for over three years now that Trump displays all the signs of having both Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disorder. I also believe he's exhibiting symptoms of the onset of senile dementia, but that's neither here nor there.

Because Azarian makes a good point. It's all well and good to understand Trump, but what we really need to understand is what attracted some voters (thankfully not the majority) to him at all - and why they still adore him.

I wouldn't undersell the Authoritarian Personality Syndrome trait. That's a biggie and exacerbated by the other traits. While conservatives are averse to change, authoritarian personalities are averse to complexity. Keep it simple stupid. They will follow anyone who triggers their black/white, in/out, all/nothing explanations of the world and takes the burden of having to navigate the intricacies of life off their shoulders. You can see how that would trigger exceptionally well with the other traits like racism, collective narcissism, and social dominance. And a celebrity is giving you all the easy answers (who cares if they are wrong)? American Authoritarian Personalities will eat it up!

I know there are a lot of people weary of these articles and have a desire to write his base off as "bad" people. But if we don't understand how they are manipulated and why, we won't be able to effectively counter the manipulation. I'm not suggesting there is a way to sway his die-hard base that would follow him off a cliff. But it could be possible to shift the needle with some Trumpist voters to make it extremely difficult for this to happen again. At least I sure hope so.

[RKP5637]

14. In fact, the people that support him bother me more than Trump. It's indicative of what is stewing

in American democracy.

[Pacifist Patriot]

21. Yep

[cornball 24]

17. My personal experience regarding the trump cult is based on relatives who have

several commonalities. Some were born and raised in blue collar areas of the city where people of different white nationalities lived. Before people of color moved in, they mocked neighbors of nationalities different from their own. When people of color moved in, most of them moved from the area and blamed "those people" for driving them from "their" neighborhood. Most of them were not college educated but managed to get decent jobs and are faring quite well. To this day, they still make racist comments as if it is in their DNA. They are diehard Trump supporters. There are others who live in rural areas where decent jobs are disappearing or were never there. Many of these people have been on welfare, food stamps, etc. for many years but they refer to it as "relief" thereby separating themselves from "the others". They are diehard Trumpers as well.

[RKP5637]

19. Yep!!! n/t

[elmac]

18. Low IQ is they only key trait that matters. nt

[Butterflylady]

20. Only answer to me that makes sense

Their so stupid, they don't know their stupid. End of story.

[Fuzzpope]

23. They're all:

Dickheads.

The End.

[RKP5637]

24. Yep, that sums it all up quite well. n/t

[lindysalsagal]

26. Quite comprehensive list that seems to include the vast majority of fumpers.

Basically, it's brain-based, and that ratio of voters will never change: So we have to get everyone else to the polls to conquer it.

[RKP5637]

28. Yep, I think that's quite true. Some are predisposed to be this way. Conditioning is surely involved

but I think the basis is a predispositioned brain function. Exactly as you say, "So we have to get everyone else to the polls to conquer it."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

27. for the other end (the trump end) ...

As a companion to this article I recommend reading:

The Year of the Old Boys: Trump, Kavanaugh, Moonves, Epstein, etc. Childish masculinity.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211594045

[RKP5637]

30. K&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Hermit-The-Prog]

34. I was lucky enough to catch both articles back-to-back

The 'Old Boys' article isn't written as a clinical analysis like the OP, but it fits so well. Seeing the psychological analysis of the supporters makes it much easier to understand how the Old Boys have gotten away with so much.

Thanks for posting the article!

[RKP5637]

35. Glad to hear it was helpful!

[ffr]

29. "the conservative brain has an exaggerated fear response"

No questioning that. Conservatives definitely fear on an elevated level.

[RKP5637]

31. Yep, I think that is the core enabler. And tRump exploits it to the fullest. n/t

[Hermit-The-Prog]

37. riots in the streets! they're coming for my guns! cities are hellholes!

Scary people stampeding the border!

I'll be glad to give peace a chance once again.

[GusBob]

40. There's a new one: White Male Fragility

I heard about this study on a radio interview. Researchers compared voting patterns to google searches. The outcome being: Trump is a macho alter ego for white men who fear weakness

[RKP5637]

41. Definitely! It appeals to the king of the mountain scenario and strength by association for those

fearing their own weakness.

[GusBob]

42. Yes the google searches were things like

Impotence, how to pick up women, male patterned baldness, etc