Decoding Leadership Through Personality

A Content Analysis of Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s Tweets

Datos Bibliográficos

ID16913045
AutoresAyşe İLGÜN KAMANLI (0000-0001-5562-8004, Doğuş University, autor de correspondencia), Yavuz Selim Balcıoğlu (0000-0001-7138-2972, Doğuş University)
Año2025
Volumen15
Número3
Fecha de publicación2025-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSAGE Open (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2158-2440 • E-ISSN: 2158-2440
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/21582440251380087
OpenAlexW4414677687
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas32

This study examines how personality traits shape leadership communication on social media outlets by comparing the Twitter/X/X discourse of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Employing a mixed-methods content analysis of 2,391 original tweets collected between December 2021 to December 2023, natural language processing techniques are integrated—lexical diversity measures, part-of-speech distributions, sentiment analysis, topic modeling—and both closed- and open-vocabulary approaches for Big Five trait inference. Also conduct time-series and crisis-specific analyses to capture temporal evolution and response strategies. Analysis of normalized engagement metrics reveals that Trump achieves superior per-follower interaction rates, generating 1,101 retweets and 4,119 likes per million followers compared to Musk's 494 retweets and 2,201 likes per million followers, indicating distinct audience engagement strategies optimized for different communication objectives. By bridging trait-based leadership theories with computational linguistics, this research demonstrates that social media platforms facilitate diverse, personality-congruent leadership expressions rather than enforcing uniformity. Practically, findings suggest that effective digital leadership requires aligning social media strategies with authentic identity and contextual objectives. Crisis communication should extend established patterns rather than relying on generic templates

Big Five personality traits · Content analysis · Discourse analysis · Frame analysis · Social media · Social network analysis · Topic model · Trait · Corporate Identity and Reputation · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Public Relations and Crisis Communication