Psychological Influences on the Policy Choices of Secretaries of State and Foreign Ministers

Abstract

This article builds upon work linking the psychological characteristics of heads of government to their foreign policy preferences. The primary interest is in determining whether there is a similar link between the psychological characteristics of secretaries of state and foreign ministers and their policy preferences during international disputes. Examining the behavior of a varied set of ministers in a set of 16 decision events, such a link is found. This has important implications for those interested in understanding and predicting foreign policy, and points to the powerful personal influence exerted by these individuals. Additionally, the findings include interesting results dealing with the relative power of various cognitive and personality influences on decision-makers’ policy preferences. Cognitive influences and perceptions of the other have a particularly strong effect on the policies promoted by these decision-makers. Implications of these findings for both the political psychology and governmental politics literatures are also discussed.