This was our first project, which began in 1994. Back in 1992, Republican commentators were saying Bill Clinton didn't have the character to be president. We didn't know, but thought they posed an interesting question:

Does a president's personality predict his performance as president?

This project had several major goals: 1) To objectively assess the personality of each president and render detailed Personality Portraits^TM of those of greatest interest; 2) To identify the traits and personal qualities of successful and unsuccessful presidents; 3) to create a typology of presidents based on their personalities. In addition, we performed many other unique analyses, such as comparing the personalities of modern Democratic and Republican presidents, and examining how the personality of our presidents has changed over time.

We attempted to collect data on all the presidents to date. For the few in which we were not able to obtain biographers, we studied the president and completed the questionnaire ourselves. Three or more experts rated most presidents. Experts are either authors of book-length biographies, or were nominated by other experts as especially knowledgeable about a particular president. Nearly one hundred and twenty specialists completed our questionnaire, some on as many as five presidents. We found:

	Men who become presidents have traits that set them apart from other Americans.
	There appear to be eight distinguishable types of presidents.
	A president’s character has no relation to how good a president’s historians judge him to be.
	A number of personality traits and qualities do predict presidential success.
	The ability to lie and deceive is an important quality for success in the White House, and presidents who are less straightforward typically make better presidents.
	Despite his recent popularity and reputation for integrity, John Adams’s personality closely resembled Richard Nixon’s.
	Presidents are much more Extraverted today than in the past and less intellectually curious than in the past. They may also be lower in character.
	Jimmy Carter is the only modern president that much resembles Founding Fathers Jefferson and Madison and the greatest president of the 19th century, Abe Lincoln. Eisenhower is the only modern president much like Washington.
	Franklin Roosevelt seems to be the template for modern presidents, with recent presidents showing high (Kennedy, Clinton) or moderate (LBJ) similarity to him. Reagan resembled his as well.
	Modern Democratic presidents tend to be very Extraverted, achievement-oriented, ebullient, and sympathetic to the poor, but are willing to deceive and relatively unprincipled.
	Modern Republican presidents tend to be less sympathetic to the less fortunate and much more inclined to rely on traditional sources of moral authority than average Americans.
	George W. Bush appears to have fewer traits related to presidential success than most presidents. He most resembles Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan.

These and many other results are reported in Personality, Character and Leadership in the White House: Psychologists Assess the Presidents, published by Brassey's in August 2004, available now at Amazon.com

We received publication offers from the American Psychological Association, North Illinois University Press, and Nova Science publishers. We decided to publish with Brasseys because we felt our book fit well with their other works and would bring our research to a wider audience.

This massive project was accomplished solely through the donations of time and expertise of our raters and the passion of the two authors: We received no financial support from any source. Our work is apolitical and strives to be free of political bias or favoritism.

Are you an expert on one of the presidents? We’d like the benefit of your knowledge. We are particularly in need of raters for the more obscure presidents of the nineteenth century. Please contact us and tell us your background and qualifications.