Kamala Harris already made history as a political figure. What are her presidential skills according to psychologists? Read to find out!
Kamala Harris was the first African-American woman ever to serve in the United States Senate. She is also the first African-American woman, and the first South-Asian American to be the Vice President. Who knows? She might become the President of The United States by the end of this year; What a great and beautiful achievement would be for her and the African-American community! Wow!
Was Kamala Harris’ personality a key to her success?
In 2019, Harris published a book called: The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. In the book, she describes herself as a fighter and as a speaker of truth. She describes her fight for some of the most important problems the United States is dealing with. These are the Trump administration, homophobia, crime, and human rights.
An article about Harris said she was a “dynamite political talent”. The article came out when she was just a candidate for the Vice President function.
Psychologist Aubrey Immelman of the College of St. Benedict has been researching and rating candidates for different important functions, for a long time. A personality metric was developed by Immelman and his group, to help him clasificate different political figures, based on their personality. It uses open sources and empirical ratings to assess, at a distance, the personality of major presidential candidates, as “publicly perceived”.
The personality assessment tool is far from being perfect, but Immelman is known for his experience and systematic approach. It allowed him to compare political figures and personalities and try to predict their performance in office. Surprising or not, he successfully predicted the winner of each presidential election since 1996.
What Immelman thinks about Harris?
In her empirical ratings, Harris scored highly on the traits of dominant, narcissistic/confident, and outgoing.
In 2020, Immelman predicted that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were a strong team that was going to win. The assertive and charismatic pattern made Biden and Harris two of the most electable candidates. Dominant candidates do better than others in politics, they can “read” others and are very happy while working the room.
It’s interesting to observe that in an interview from 2020, Immelman said that if Kamala is elected as Vice President, she will outshine Biden. Immelman anticipated that Kamala wasn’t going to be a simple Vice President and her abilities could help her be and do more. He talked multiple times about how ambitious she is, and how easily can play a prominent role in any Biden administration.
Also, when Immelman was asked about the debate that was going to happen between Harris and Mike Pence, he said that Harris’ gregarious personality, confidence, and dominance were likely to help her a lot during the debate.
She speaks freely, in a less structured format, which is very pleasant for the audience. Kamala works methodically, but aggressively, toward goals, with a strong preference for efficiency, while Pence tends to be more technique and his speech can become easily boring.
Harris’ personality test
According to the 16-Personalities Types Test, Kamala Harris is “The performer”. She tends to be ambitious, adaptable, and enthusiastic. She loves to set and accomplish goals, which is really important in the political world. As a political figure, she couldn’t be successful if she wasn’t adaptable to what was happening in the world, and most importantly, around her.
Based on types by Jung, Myers, and Briggs, Kamala Harris is an ESTJ (Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging). It means that she enjoys debates, likes to work independently, and loves to set ambitious goals for others. She is basically the best leader and even the psychological tests are saying it.
Kamala Harris’ successful career
Even though she is a woman in a jungle of men, Kamala Harris successfully managed to do her job over the years. Let’s not forget that she was a former prosecutor. So, her experience with different kinds of cases and people, helped her a lot as a political figure. She learned how to fight for what’s right, how and when to present her arguments, and last but not least, how to manage crises.
She was present in politics for a long time, which helped her, a lot, in becoming the Democratic Party nominee for the 2024 elections. She had a lot of credibility, and the number she reached in such a short time, doesn’t lie. In just 24 hours after Joe Biden quit and he publicly announced his endorsement for Kamala Harris, she fundraised $81 million. That is an incredible record!
A lot of celebrities and popular political figures are by her side, including the Obamas. Who called her personally, and let her know, that she has all their support.
What else could you ask for?
Receiving endorsements from all these important figures, such as Former President Barack Obama, Former First Lady Michele Obama, President Joe Biden, Beyonce, George Clooney, Ariana Grande, Governor Gavin Newsom, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Shonda Rimes, Ellen Pompeo, and the list goes on; helps Harris a lot in the race against Donal Trump, who isn’t a weak candidate at all. Before Bide dropped out, everyone thought that Trump was going to win. Kamala Harris was a beautiful and unexpected surprise for the Democrats.
But what is most important is that Kamala Harris received a lot of love from the public, the simple people, who are the best supporters in these kinds of situations.
After her ad for the presidential campaign was launched, younger generations also became her supporters, which is a huge achievement. Just weeks ago, Americans were complaining about the young people who would not vote. It seems that the problem wasn’t about Gen Z, but about the ex-nominees and candidates they couldn’t resonate with.
Defining moments in Harris’ career commented on by experts
In 2016, the day after she was sworn in as a senator, Kamala addressed the Women’s March: “Even if you are not sitting in the White House, even if you are not a member of the United States Congress, you have the power! And we the people have the power!”.
Kamala Harris is unique when it comes to public speeches. Her way of speaking is very pleasant and she was always by the women’s side, each time they needed her help. For example, one of her most important fights is for reproductive freedom. Will she succeed and cancel Trump’s plans for the future? I guess, we’ll have to wait and see the results.
It’s sure that in the past few days, Kamala Harris made very important and smart political moves. Her qualities cannot be denied.
If you want to find out more information about Harris’s personality, you can purchase her book from Amazon, by following this link. The book was released in 2019 and shortly became a New York Times bestseller.
Speaking of politicians, you should check out another related article: 8 Shocking Traits All Active Shooters Have in Common. Everything that is going on right now in the United States can be overwhelming. For a better understanding of the events happening, we should have a look at the psychological point of view. It will help us to better understand the reasons behind actions.
