The most appealing candidates are not usually the most effective leaders

Evidence

We may vote for the candidate who feels most “comfortable” or congruent to us, who fits our dimly perceived hierarchies of motives and goals. At best, though, such leader appeal has little to do with leader effectiveness. And often enough the “uncomfortable” leader, discrepant in motive from the larger society of the times, turns out to be regarded as the great leader. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1368 (#expands, via linked claim)

This breakdown, when the smugness of spurious respectability gave way to anarchic despair, seemed the first great opportunity for the elite as well as the mob. This is obvious for the new mass leaders whose careers reproduce the features of earlier mob leaders: failure in professional and social life, perversion and disaster in private life. The fact that their lives prior to their political careers had been failures, naively held against them by the more respectable leaders of the old parties, was the strongest factor in their mass appeal. It seemed to prove that individually they embodied the mass destiny of the time and that their desire to sacrifice everything for the movement, their assurance of devotion to those who had been struck by catastrophe, their determination never to be tempted back into the security of normal life, and their contempt for respectability were quite sincere and not just inspired by passing ambitions. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 778 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Leader appeal ratings diverge from long-term leader performance measures; Comfortable-feeling candidates are rarely the most effective leaders — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1368; Presidential popularity depends on personality fit with the era, but greatness does not — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1278 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Comfortable-feeling candidates are rarely the most effective leaders #expands (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1368
• Personal failure before politics was the strongest factor in mass leaders’ appeal #complicates (0.72) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 778