What Do Radio Talent and Politicians Have In Common?

Successful films, sports teams, TV shows and radio shows are built around personalities and performers. The same is true of politicians! The Gallop Poll has been polling presidential elections since 1960 when John Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon. Gallop asks voters their opinions of the candidates based on how they stand on the issues, their voting records, level of experience and their personality.

Every single presidential election in the U.S. has been won by the candidate who scored highest on personality. “Modern voters tend to reject two personality types in particular: introverted people who don’t relate well to others and conscientious people, who are proper, diligent, detail-oriented, and super rational (think Al Gore)” says Aubrey Immelman, director of the unit for the Study of Personality in Politics at St. John’s University.

A conscientious person comes across as stiff on radio and TV, because they tend to be non-emotional and rational. Stiff, non-emotional and rational are death for radio personalities and apparently for politicians as well. Immelman says, “The opposite of conscientiousness is impulsiveness, so you’d think voters would like conscientious politicians, but they don’t.”

Confident, upbeat, extroverted and impulsive personalities (e.g. Bill Clinton) make for engaging and interesting radio personalities AND politicians. Personality rules!

-written by Randy Lane

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Excerpts are from the Oct. 3rd issue of Newsweek from the article “Can Mitt Make the Sale? by Andrew Romano