Abstract

Toleration of another’s religious creed is a sine qua non for good leadership. Similarly, certain personality traits facilitate or hinder the expression of good leadership qualities. The aim of this study is to isolate a few established personality traits believed to be associated with leadership qualities and determine if they are related to tolerating others’ religions. Specifically, religious tolerance was regressed on the dimensions of Social Intelligence and that of EPQ among the police cadets (N= 227, Age range = 17 to 27 years, Mean = 23.01, Standard Deviation =3.433, 80% males). First, Social intelligence and EPQ were distinct (dimensions) variables viz.: Social information processing (SIP); Social awareness (SA); Social skills (SS); Psychoticism; and Neuroticism. Secondly, the result of hierarchical multiple regression showed that some of both dimensions significantly predicted and account for variations in religious tolerance (Social Information Processing: β =.150, R2 = .081, p =.03; Social Awareness: β = -.260, ∆R2 = .001, p = .001; Social Skills: β = .397, ∆R2 = .102, p =.000; Psychoticism: β =.-.117, ∆R2 = .012, p =.075; Neuroticism: β = .007, ∆R2 = .00, p = .916). On the premise that good leadership entails many behavioural traits, we deduce that these dimensions are requisite to leadership qualities and have relationship with religious tolerance. It is recommended that personnel who aspire to police leadership, and individuals in general should be well observed and screened for psychotic and neurotic tendencies to get things right with governance.