Five distinct objections question whether personality can explain political outcomes

Evidence

Reservations have been expressed about the utility of studying the personalities of political actors on the grounds that (1) political actors are randomly distributed in roles and therefore their personalities “cancel out”; (2) political action is determined more by the actors’ political environments than by their own characteristics; (3) the particular stratum of the psyche many political scientists equate with personality, psychodynamics, and the ego defenses, does not have much of a political impact; (4) the social characteristics of political actors are more important than their psychological characteristics; and (5) individuals are typically unable to have much effect on political outcomes. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1126

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ‘random distribution cancels out’ objection is fascinating — is it testable? What does the aggregation assumption actually require?
• DEFINE: Useful catalog of the standard anti-personality position in political science, worth keeping as a reference map.