By
Gary Berg-Cross
You
may find it surprising, but I've been thinking about boasting and
self promotion a bit these days. Well OK, in today's campaign
environment this is perhaps not that surprising as we are confronted
with naked forms of narcissism than usual . I'm thinking here, of
course, of various claims that flow, or overflow, out of candidate
Trump's mouth. In March, for example, on Good Morning America D.
Trump claimed, “
No
One Has 'Done So Much for Equality as I Have' Evidence?
His clubs are open to everyone.
“"You
take a look at Palm Beach, Florida. I built the Mar-a-Lago club,
totally open to everybody. A club that, frankly, set a new standard
in clubs and a new standard in Palm Beach and I've gotten great
credit for it. That is totally open to everybody."
Speaking
to AIPAC he boasted “I've
studied
the Iran nuclear deal more than anyone.”
The AIPAC audience laughed, maybe nervously. One reporter labeled
it a “Crazed Speech Filled With Self-Promotion And Delusion.”
Doonesbury documented 20 such boastful delusions including claims of
being # on Bible reading, women's issue, trade etc.
It's
all consistent with Dan McAdam's Mind
of Trump article ( a
psychologist investigates how Trump’s extraordinary personality
might shape his possible presidency) in The
Atlantic which provides such labels to the Donald personality as:
- narcissism,
- disagreeableness,
- grandiosity
These
ingredients offer some idea of why Trump trumpets himself. He thinks
we need to know how awesome he is. He just lacks or does not find
useful the methods by which many of us engage in humble boasting.
Where we may not want to let our audience on to how we are dying to
brag about our kids or grand kids, new job, great investment, well
Trump is on to the direct bragging path. And like a super
stereotyped New Yorker he anticipates a good return on investment
with little cost.
Generally,
research suggests that people dislike direct, explicit
self-superiority claims such as being better than others, chosen,
gifted or favored by fortune. It is perhaps a comparative thing with
thelistener being put one down. You can read all about the dynamics
of “humble boasting in another Atlantic article by MATTHEW HUTSON
called “How
to Boast on the Sly A guide to bragging better.”
While
we can't expect Trump to be guided by factors that influence day to
day boasting as opposed to national level ones there are some factors
in here that may eventually come into to play at least for some
voters, outside of the Trump tribe, who are entranced with a
blinding, boastful, self delusional and self promoting vision of
change and leadership.
For
example, as noted by Hutson when we brag overtly, we miscalculate how
others will react. That is, studies suggest that self-promoters
overestimated the extent to which their audiences would feel “proud”
and “happy,” and they underestimated audience annoyance. A way
around this is to “hire” someone to do the boasting for you.
There is plenty of that in politics but again, Trump likes to toot
his own boast organ himself so he may run into a limit here as praise
from the usual suspects seems to be hard to hear.
One
wonders if we will see a turn off from DT's explicit self-superiority
claims (“I am better than others”). Of course in a campaign such
claims are always there is some form maybe a bit more humbly
implied. One warning to Hillary, as Hutson notes:
"Women
appear to pay the greatest price for bragging. When job candidates in
one study self-confidently highlighted their accomplishments, they
were seen as more competent than when they spoke modestly. Yet the
women who self-promoted were seen as less likable than the
self-effacing women. "
Another cultural hurdle for women to clear.
