Trump rates higher than Hitler on psychopath scale
LONDON: US presidential hopeful Donald Trump ranks higher than Adolf Hitler in psychopathic traits, according to a unique ranking of past and present world leaders developed at the University of Oxford.
Trump scored 171 points, two more than Adolf Hitler, while Saddam Hussein topped the list with a score of 189. Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton got a score of 152, placing her in the top 20% and between Napoleon and Nero.
The top five historical individuals in research psychologist Kevin Dutton’s study are former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Henry VIII, former Ugandan despot Idi Amin, Adolf Hitler and William the Conqueror. Gandhi ranked last in the list of top 20% individuals studied, a university release said on Tuesday.
Dutton has been exploring the psychopathic traits of the US presidential hopefuls and historical figures using a standard psychometric tool – the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R).
Over the past few years, Dutton contacted official biographers of many historical leaders and asked them to fill out, on their subject’s behalf, an abbreviated version of the PPI-R. Trump did not take the tests himself and his ranking was based on expert opinions on how he would have scored.
The results, published in the journal Scientific American Mind, showed Trump scored higher than rivals, achieving a total score on a par with Hitler and Idi Amin. Trump outscored the other candidates in “fearless dominance”, the area associated with successful presidencies, and in “self-centred impulsivity”, seen as negative.