Analysis Of Donald Trump’s Tweets Reveal Distinct Personality Traits
President Donald Trump’s tweets frequently cause a stir, leaving the public in disbelief, shock, and often puzzled, depending on the political affiliation of the reader. The 140 character messages give a glimpse into his thoughts, but they may also provide a deeper look into his personality traits, according to a new study.
Researchers analyzed his tweets and came to the conclusion they reveal he’s creative, competitive, a rule-breaker, and that he shows neurotic tendencies. While neuroticism might sound concerning, it may act as a way to help bring out his competitive side, study author Martin Obschonka points out.
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“Maybe this high neuroticism is a major motivator to succeed in Trump’s entrepreneurial projects in his business life, but also in his role as political leader,” study author Christian Fisch added in a statement.
Since Trump joined Twitter in 2009, he’s published more than 35,400 tweets as of July 2017. Some of his most recent tweets include his announcement that transgender individuals are not permitted to serve in the United States military and his usual outpour against the “fake news” media outlets.
In the analysis, published in the Small Business Economics journal, Obschonka and Fisch used established software to look at 3,200 tweets published by Trump before he became president. The researchers then compared his language and online personality to more than 100 other famous business figures such as Apple’s Tim Cook and entrepreneurs including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk.
The results showed that Trump shares many similar personality traits as other successful entrepreneurs, including being change-oriented and creative. However, the tweets also showed he experiences underlying low well-being, the study said, which is a less common trait.
“These traits are rather untypical for entrepreneurs since working as an entrepreneur may not only require emotional stability and optimism but also be able to increase happiness due to procedural utility,” Obschonka said.
This report isn’t the first to analyze his tweets. Past analyses have looked at whether his tweets reflect that of a tyrant, how the messages reflect his mood, and the overall facts and figures of his tweets, among other topics.