A Leadership Trait Analysis of U.S. Vice President JD Vance

Authors

• Aubrey Immelman, College of St. Benedict | St. John's UniversityFollow
• Sophie J. Heck

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

7-2026

Disciplines

American Politics | Leadership Studies | Other Political Science | Other Psychiatry and Psychology | Other Psychology | Personality and Social Contexts

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an indirect leadership trait analysis of U.S. vice president JD Vance, conducted for the purpose of anticipating Vance’s likely leadership style in a high-level executive role in politics, from the conceptual perspective of Margaret Hermann’s leadership trait analysis (LTA) model, employing an empirically based “psychodiagnostic meta-analytic” methodology.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data relating to Vance were collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Hermann Leadership Trait Inventory (HLTI) — constructed expressly for the present study — which taps seven leadership trait dimensions: belief in one’s ability to control events, need for power and influence, self-confidence, conceptual complexity (openness to information), task versus relationship orientation, ingroup bias, and distrust of others.

Vance was found to be high in the belief of his ability to control events, high in the need for power and influence, highly self-confident, moderately high in conceptual complexity, highly task focused, high in ingroup bias, and high in distrust of others.

In terms of Hermann’s conceptual scheme, Vance was classified as an actively independent leader — a task-oriented leader who challenges constraints and is moderately open to information, yielding a leadership style with a focus on maintaining his maneuverability and flexibility while avoiding obstacles that limit both.

Comments

The research was conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics (USPP), a collaborative faculty–student research program in the psychology of politics at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict in Collegeville and St. Joseph, Minnesota, directed by Aubrey Immelman, PhD, associate professor of psychology, who specializes in the psychological assessment of presidential candidates and world leaders. 

More information and updates: http://personality-politics.org/ 

The research was partially funded by the Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholars at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University. 

Related reports 

The Personality Profile of U.S. Vice President JD Vance » https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/151/ 

The Leadership Style of U.S. President Donald J. Trump »  http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/107/ 

The Personality Profile and Leadership Style of U.S. President Donald J. Trump in Office » http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/129/ 

Copyright Statement

Copyright © 2026 by Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics / Aubrey Immelman 

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Immelman, A., & Heck, S. J. (2026, July 16–19). A leadership trait analysis of U.S. vice president JD Vance [Paper presentation]. International Society of Political Psychology 49th Annual Scientific Meeting, Newcastle, England, United Kingdom. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/152/