The Profile of Political Leaders

"Jaap van Ginneken has long been considered one of the most prolific authors on psychology, for a broad audience in The Netherlands. His works are written in a clear and accessible style. With numerous examples, he shows time and again how miraculous and fascinating human behaviour is. His book on leaders is the crown on his work." (Vittorio Busato, Editor-in-Chief, De Psycholoog, the Netherlands) "Always wanted to know what makes the world leaders so powerful? It is important, and sometimes also hilarious and unsettling, to understand what features makes these men (and women) directors of our common future. To discover all this you have to read Van Ginneken's latest book." (Cees Hamelink, Emeritus Professor International Communication, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) "This book offers a bold challenge to modern theories about leadership. There is little rationality in how we choose our political leaders as we are constantly being fooled by our ancestral brains. This provocative message may ruffle a few feathers but if you think leadership matters, you cannot ignore this book." (Mark van Vugt, Professor of Pyschology, Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands)

By analysing a wide range of empirical research into leadership, this book provides a composite portrait of frequent characteristics, such as personality and demeanour, that influence both the success and popularity of political leaders. Through the lenses of mass psychology and collective behaviour sociology, the author offers fascinating observations on political leadership which reveal a coherent pattern. In our choice of and support for leaders, we still seem to be guided by unconscious or instinctive preferences. Evolutionary psychologists have labelled this 'CALP' for 'Cognitive Ancestral Leadership Prototype'. Length, symmetry, face form, voice pitch, eye blinking and more turn out to play a role - even today - alongside personality and style. Each chapter of the book offers a case study to illustrate these observations, including Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Boris Johnson. This book is accessibly written to appeal to students of politics, psychology and sociology, as well as the wider interested reader.