Using tweets to decrypt the personality of Donald Trump and other powerful people (2017)

“In the case of President Trump, researchers conclude he is an ’emotionally unstable innovator’.”

Queensland University of Technology
EurekAlert 27 July 2017
Image:Skidmore

“An international research team, led by [Queensland University of Technology]’s Associate Professor Martin Obschonka from the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research, employed a…computerised scientific method of analysing digital footprints [on Twitter] to decrypt the personality profiles of 106 superstar business leaders.”

“In the case of President Trump, researchers conclude he is an ’emotionally unstable innovator’.”

“We…employed a new method that uses machine learning and other computer science methods to analyse characteristic language styles, contents, and patterns that together can reveal remarkably valid information on a person’s personality profile.”

In the first study¹, “researchers compared the online personalities of the wealthiest entrepreneurs with those of the most powerful CEOs.”

“…The research found superstar CEOs…were more conscientious, more power driven, and less insecure.”

“In their second paper², …researchers took a closer look on probably the most prominent and powerful person in their sample, Donald Trump.”

“[Researchers] found Trump shows stronger features of an innovator personality than the other influential business leaders – he scored higher in openness to new experience…and, at the same time, lower in agreeableness…epitomising what 20th Century entrepreneurship researcher Joseph Schumpeter called ‘creative destruction’.”

“We also found Trump scored relatively high in neuroticism….We could identify a personality pattern in Trump that makes him so distinct from the superstar entrepreneurs and CEO’s in that he really seems to resemble a type of an emotionally unstable innovator.”

Read the full article here: Using tweets to decrypt the personality of Donald Trump and other powerful people (2017)

1.Obschonka, M., Fisch, C., & Boyd, R. (2017). Using digital footprints in entrepreneurship research: A Twitter-based personality analysis of superstar entrepreneurs and managers. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 8, 13-23. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352673417300239

2. Obschonka, M., & Fisch, C. (2017). Entrepreneurial personalities in political leadership. Small Business Economics, 1-19. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-017-9901-7