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New Study Explains Why Trump's 'Sad' Tweets Are So Effective (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: During his campaign and presidency, Donald Trump has used Twitter to circumvent traditional media broadcasters and speak directly to the masses. He is particularly known for one specific tweet construction: he sets up a situation that he feels should inspire anger or outrage, then punctuates it with "Sad!" New research from New York University suggests a reason why this style is so effective: a tweet containing moral and emotional language spreads farther among people with similar political persuasion. The study offered up "duty" as an example of a purely moral word, "fear" as a purely emotional one, and "hate" as word that combined the two categories. The research found that the use of purely moral or purely emotional language had a limited impact on the spread of a tweet, but the "presence of moral-emotional words in messages increased their diffusion by a factor of 20% for each additional word." The impact of this language cut both ways. Tweets with moral-emotional words spread further among those with a similar political outlook, and they spread less with those who held opposing views, according to the research published in the journal PNAS. The study looked at 563,312 tweets on the topics of gun control, same-sex marriage, and climate change, and rated their impact by the number of retweets each one received.
That's the same "style" that every older mother in America uses in every other Facebook or Twitter post they've ever made. Shit, my mother was using that "style" before the internet even existed, sending me tragic newspaper clippings in the mail with "sad" written on them.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Teflon Don's tweets; or Billary's pantsuits and harpy like screeching. Discuss.
He already knew about the Ten-word answer over a decade ago. And none of the words should have more than three syllables.
A short pithy rejoinder will accomplish more than a Platonic dialogue, no matter how well composed it might happen to be.
In fact, the only thing more powerful would be an acronym or emoji.
Does not sound like much of a study. More like a bit of a theory.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
The vast majority of the population are semi-brainless machines whose hearts and minds are manipulated from simple word-commands from authority
Dark but true, deal with it
Why single out Trump? This "moral-emotional" style is what everyone is doing. Up to a few years ago it was only feminists and other left leaning political groups who were using it, but now even right leaning political groups are using it. Trump is only following the trend. Rational discourse is dying in the West.
/. has devolved into mostly partisan bickering. Sad!
Sad!
Hey, they have to get the ratio of anti-Trump to non-anti-Trump stories to at least 1:1. That goes for the posts as well. Why they are focusing purely on bashing Trump and not bashing the DNC for getting things together is entirely beyond me. First election in a while that I couldn't even vote for the Democratic nominee. :\
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Sad!" - CmdrTrumpo
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Maybe is was like this:
1) Corrupt politicians want to move stolen money from their country. The U.S. seems like a safe place for money.
2) Corrupt Russian politicians invested in Trump real estate.
3) The politicians were afraid of Hillary discovering what they had done.
4) They arranged to interfere with the U.S. election system, so Trump would win.
5) Trump makes money from their investments.
I just read those tweets as pseudo-manipulative grade school behavior. Who says stuff like that anymore? Really, the last time I remember hearing stupid stuff like "xxxx Sad!" is in elementary school or maybe high school.
His followers are idiots. Sad!
In fact, the only thing more powerful would be an acronym or emoji.
So you're saying the most viral possible right-wing tweet would be:
SJWs :-( Sad!
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Fair and balanced. Gotta put up opposing viewpoints, even if they are fucking morons.
who were forced to resign. Sad!
"Sad" is a gentle but really provoking form of mocking that seems especially able to get people to react...
The only say it is "effective" for supporters, but they are ignoring a message also being "effective" if it makes a target group very angry.
It has allowed Trump to greatly distract the press and other opponents from mountain effective opposition, because they spent a great deal of time in a state of rage, where they are unable to make rational choices and are therefore rendered mostly powerless.
It's also an effective style because it's really easy for others to pick up and use as well, with increases the power of the term...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
During his campaign and presidency, Donald Trump has used Twitter to circumvent traditional media broadcasters and speak directly to the masses without any kind of feedback.
In short he knows the shit he is shovelling doesn't hold up to questioning, so he avoids all those pesky hard questions. He does this through twitter, surrogates, and Fox News, and probably other ways. Hell he is currently cutting video from daily briefings and even cutting making them live. Basically that is an indirect way to prevent negative information (truth) from spreading quite so quickly.
He is a con man in the middle of the biggest long con of his life, just hoping he can keep fooling enough of the populace to keep on keeping on. He will say anything to keep up the con, and he doesn't appear to care about the consequences.
Why is it we as a country accept politicians without any sort of moral center? Sure a few of them will stand up for what is right, but even then a lot of them shut up if talking might cost them an election. A good man does what is right not just when it benefits him.
I'll end with a quote from Babylon 5:
"How do you know the chosen ones? No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame; for one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see. I have been in the service of the Vorlons for centuries, looking for you. Diogenes with his lamp, looking for an honest man willing to die for all the wrong reasons. At last my job is finished. Yours is just beginning. When the darkness comes, know this: You are the right people, in the right place, at the right time."
Trumpz! Trumpy! Trumpx! Trumpw! Trumpv! Trumpu! Trumpt! Trumps! Trumpr!
conservative america consists largely of knee-jerk reactionaries?
An other article from today calls Trump a genius.
https://townhall.com/columnist...
"He is able to speak directly to the American people without going through the biased mainstream media filter. The media doesn’t get to ask him slanted questions or pick and choose parts of his press releases to publish. Instead, Trump gets immense control over every single sentence he issues, which are then read by millions of Americans. "
Regardless whether you love or hate the man, you do have to admit it is an effective way to deal with unfriendly media.
because he's the only populist. Everyone else is either like the Republicans and busy telling us why we can't have nice things (austerity) or the Dems and just shouting about how bad the other side is because they're in deep with the same mega corps that bought off the Right. There's an itty bitty tinsy tiny group that rally around Bernie Sanders and that's about it. So when Trump started saying things like healthcare for all and good jobs and education folks rallied around him because, hey, whatdayagot to lose?
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We should revoke his supporters' citizenship.
Sooo SAD :)
Trump is satan.
You were warned.
Vword: liable
easy.
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
Effective? Remember his tax plan? The one page which reduced the number of tax bands and a bunch of other major changes. No? Don't remember it? Because he was laughed at. He did a diversion on his twitter, and nobody mentioned how clueless he is.
He's done it so so so often, that his whiney needy Tweets are no longer listed in the mainstream media. Do you know what he tweeted this weekend? Some sort of conspiracy theory involving Clinton and Sanders and Obama and their collective failure to tackle Russian healthcare or something. Ooo who cares, give him his passifier quick!
Popularist? Well he might *want* to make popular decisions, but his view of popular is based on Hannity, and Hannity says whatever he's paid to by sponsors, usualy big corps wanting a handout. He also seems to parrot Tweets from Russia military posing as voters. He has no idea what popular is, popular is whatever line people feed him as popular is.
e.g. Trumpcare? How dumb is it to shift all the healthcare costs from young+rich to older people. Older people are Republican core voting block! Republicans, were promised $15/month healthcare, instead they'll pay 5 times as much, plus extra for cancer cover (cancer more common in older = Republicans), plus extra for every precondition (preconditions = older = Republican). All so that Koch brothers can strip healthcare from their companies? Popularist?
"Right. There's an itty bitty tinsy tiny group that rally around Bernie Sanders"
Ahh, I gave your answer a proper response, now I re-read it, you were simply doing a Sanders talking point. Good luck with that Trump fluffing, he undercuts everyone who lies for him so they turn into his lie-bitch. There's a no-win in repeating Trump lies, you'll need to repeat every bigger and bigger lies and look ridiculous.
he's an effective Politician. As a Governor and a Leader he's terrible. But neither of those things win elections.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Does not sound like much of a study. More like a bit of a theory.
Yep. Researchers find a trend in the data, then rationalize an explanation and present it as "theory".
I'll propose an alternate explanation for the data.
People are tired of being told what to think, the outlets have been telling people what to think in the strongest possible terms, and as a result the strength of the words has declined.
Calling someone a liar, fascist, racist, islamophobe, Hitler, Cthulhu, and everything else was so completely over the top(*) that many people simply got used to the terms, thinking that exaggeration was the new normal they applied an internal reverse bias to compensate.
The term "sad" is mild, so when you encounter it you might think the person saying it *isn't* exaggerating, and may be choosing their words carefully. It's the difference between someone saying "I'm uncomfortable" versus "I'm too hot!". Literally, the 2nd phrase implies required action, which isn't usually true (that the action is required), and is taken as exaggeration. The 1st phrase sounds more accurate and reasonable, and gives the impression of truthfulness.
So when Trump says something is "sad", it's in lieu of calling something bad, nasty, stupid, or unconscionable. It comes off as more nuanced, non-exaggerated, and more trustworthy.
That's my theory, and it also fits the data.
Can someone propose a test to distinguish between the two theories?
(*) If you don't think that the recent media coverage was over the top, consider Breitbart's enormous jump in readership in recent months, [Democrat minority leader] Nancy Pelosi is desperately trying to shore up support, and CNN is now literally synonymous with the term "fake news". That doesn't happen overnight, nor from isolated events, nor does it happen for no good reason.
Reopen the investigation now!!
Are you seriously pretending his tweets are crafted? They're barely coherent, usually written first thing in the morning before coffee and briefing.
e.g. “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
Dumb, of course Congress would ask for the tapes, and he'd have to admit he's a fantasist or a snoop.
So then he has to go on Fox and look like an idiot.
"Well, I didn't tape him," he said in an interview with Fox News' "Fox and Friends" when asked why he wanted Comey to believe that tapes existed. "But I didn't tape. And I don't have any tape and I didn't tape....But when he found out that I, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether it's governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, I think his story may have changed,"
So is Trump, the head of the government or not? His comments paint a government not under his control. He's clearly not the commander in chief, more the ranting guy on the sidelines about bad government.
Worse, he's replying to a Senate demand via Fox and Friends, and Twitter. Like he's afraid of Senators.
aka "Tell the Senators I didn't tape him, but maybe that nasty Obama's government did tape him, like Obama taped me".
Genius? Seriously, you want to feed that talking point?
As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.
On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House
will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron.
~H.L. Mencken
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Genius is a strong word, by which I mean an incorrect one. But it is a clever strategy, which he stumbled upon quite conveniently. If he were the first big personality to discover Twitter, that would have been one thing. This is another thing.
Genius is probably accurate.
No one knows with any certainty, but there were studies during the election about who was smarter. Trump came out somewhere North of 150 in estimated intelligence, as did Hillary Clinton. Both candidates were rated at roughly the same level based on their achievements, scholarship, and writing ability (Trump has a Bachelor of Science).
Calling him any sort of stupid is belied by the fact that he is a self-made billionaire, successful reality TV star, and the current president of the US. On top of that he has a strong family, raised good kids, and has a smart and lovely wife.
Mensa generally accepts an IQ of 140 as genius level, so it seems that both Donald *and* Hillary are well above the genius level.
'nuff said.
> Calling him any sort of stupid is belied by the fact that he is a self-made billionaire, successful reality TV star, and the current president of the US. On top of that he has a strong family, raised good kids, and has a smart and lovely wife.
You can't blame them, it's part of a cognitive dissonance trap that was set for them decades ago. The media has been promoting (and even manufacturing) every little "stupid" thing done by anyone vaguely Republican and has used it as part of their branding. So they'll find as many polls as they can saying that smart people are Democrats and denigrating anyone in "fly over" states, etc. Well, that last part finally bit them pretty hard, but the conditioning is still quite effective and they literally cannot see the brainwashing at this point.
Trump knows this and used it against them in a master-stroke, by deliberately making them underestimate him at every turn. Heck, the DNC even promoted him in the Pied Piper campaign of theirs (go look up the emails, and be sure to validate the DKIM key) to give him the initial boost he used to run away with this. Even though they're being led around by the covfefe they don't get it, and it's hilarious to everyone outside the brainwashing.
P.S. Here's a story you probably won't see today elsewhere. Yet another page 99 retraction. Fun times.
Yes, emotionally manipulative language is effective, but it doesn't have to be. Train yourself to look for it, and then choose to reject it. When you see someone appealing to your emotions instead of your reason, recognize what they're doing and call them out for it. That's especially true when they're saying things you agree with, because that's when you're most vulnerable to manipulation. We each have the responsibility to reject people who try to manipulate our emotions and tell them that's not acceptable. We also have the responsibility not to stoop to doing it ourselves. If your arguments are sound, they can stand on their own without emotionally manipulative language. If you find you can't make your arguments sound convincing without it, that's a pretty good clue there's something wrong with them.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
Why do fucking morons think "Fair and balanced" means putting up opposing viewpoints.
This idiocy is why western civilization is totally fucked.
The idiots who wrote this study are just regurgitating an obvious fact while making fun of Trump to whore for grant money. Sad.
see subject
Not to mention bigly ratings, even after the election. Trump is a goose who lays golden media/news ratings eggs for them.
Table-ized A.I.
I don't understand where fair an balanced comes from. It's a bunch of BS. Trump commits a new atrocity ever day of the week, but for some reason we have to trawl the bottom of the barrel to find a Democrat snafu to keep it fair. Oh hey guyz, remember that tiem dat Obummer wore tennis shoes and dress pants. OMG so unprofessional. Fair an balanced is how we end up with morons like Alex Jones getting air time. The guy should be sitting in a padded cell, not making six figures telling people there's a child sex ring in the basement of a pizza place that doesn't even have a basement.
"further among those with a similar political outlook, and they spread less with those who held opposing views"
If they [Trump's tweets] had such an impact then one can only conclude that the American People got the president they wanted.
I have this study which explains why New York University research sucks ass.
See subject.
Rupert Murdoch with Fox etc gave him a lot of coverage.
By his past actions with other political leaders he's not likely to have done it for free and will come and collect.
a case of sad tweets from a sad twat. enough said
But are they effective? I suppose it depends on what the aim is - the way I read it, the study shows that they are only effective if he wants to sow discord and create division - his supporters become a bit more sycophantic, the rest of us are sickened even more. But didn't he talk about uniting all Americans and making America great again? Division only diminishes the nation.
Sad
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The tweets are effective because they push the right buttons of the chronically naive right-wingers who still sit in their cabin waiting for the mine to open that Reagan's flawed policies closed (ironically, Trump proposes the same dimshit). Add to that all the children that were left behind by Bush's flopped education legislation and we end up with many who have only an attention span of 144 characters paired with a sixth grade education level. Sadly, same seems to apply to Trump. That guy is just ridiculously dumb!
Why aren't you taking advantage of the subsidy? You're earning under 200% of the federal poverty level for a household of two, so you should qualify for a subsidy equal to whatever it takes to reduce the second cheapest silver plan to 6.3% of your income. (Yes, there is still the matter of deductibles and copayments, but at least the premiums would be much more reasonable at around $150/month.)
Better still, in some states you should qualify for Medicaid on the basis of being disabled. I take it your state is not one of those?
Can someone please tell me who this Trump guy is, why he's important and WTF are "tweets"?
Thank you.
#DeleteFacebook
Trump's tweets are so "effective" because he was running for and then held the most powerful office on the planet and he is totally incompetent in every way except for media manipulation. And even there he routinely shoots himself into the foot.
The very fact that he is anywhere near this office much less in it is totally appalling to anyone who has the slightest familiarity with the facts. That group will re-tweet because of the seriousness of the consequences of the election are quite real to them. Add to that his base that loves him will retweet him no matter what. The "effectiveness" has little to do with the structure of his utterances.
Comparing this to anything else for any purpose other than point out how outrageous it is is meaningless.
Did you ever get spanked by a parent and have them say "It hurts me more than you" with a genuine facial expression of empathy? It's kind of the same construct. Humans, especially Americans, do this all the time. For those of you coming late to the party, wait until realize how many people have learned this skill to turn negotiating tables effectively as the expense of you, the uninitiated. Ever wonder why Jordan Belfort was so successful in business? We are all slimy to one degree or another because we are primarily motivated by self interest. Those who don't eventually come to understand that become the fodder of those that do. There is no way to fix "the game". You just have to play.
We'll make great pets
How many days did this last in the news cycle? Sad!
RRK
Tweets with moral-emotional words spread further among those with a similar political outlook, and they spread less with those who held opposing views
Or put another way, people with opposing viewpoints are more likely to respond to logical arguments against their viewpoint than they are to emotional ones. Since we should be making decisions based on logic and not emotion, I see nothing wrong with this.
The same reason "sad!" triggers them: they're idiots.
Trump is still our president. Sad!
Personally when I see him say "Sad" I think to myself how true! We have an idiot as POTUS and how did we ever lower the bar to allow this to happen?
I screwed up the amount; it was supposed to be £120b per the linked reference. That'll teach me to try to battle Slashdot's unicode support with the pound sign.
Just Don't Look
This whole "it's a train wreck, I just can't look away" or "I want to see what he'll say next" argument is growing more and more pathetic.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
One of the things I dislike about the left is that it seems like their leaders use purely emotional appeals (i.e. on gun control) rather than considering evidence and a rational and pragmatic problem solving mindset.
And one of the things I hate most about Trump is that he's now doing the same for what should have been the conservative side.
But we have only ourselves to blame, don't we? We keep rewarding these idiots for their fallacious reasoning and their appeals to emotion rather than rewarding principled and rational thinkers who come up with concrete solutions to real problems.
Only when we have clear, concrete, and principled options in front of us can we make reasonable decisions. These appeals to emotion only serve to lead us like sheep. While the government gains ever more power and away more and more of our rights we fight like dogs over who's more outraged than the other.
Vote for more rights. Vote for fewer laws. Vote for lower taxes. Vote for more for all people and less for the government.
You realize that you sound just as unbalanced right? pretty much leftism extremist
Cool Story, Bro.
I don't think you know what's even going on in the country, based on the drivel you have posted. You should be embarrassed for airing junk like that. In the last 20 years, the media has only truly gone after Republican presidents. Bush gets elected and the show "That's My Bush" shows up, which has only one purpose: To ridicule the president. Obama gets elected... and there is one skit on a show where the joke is "Teehee, he's so polite and calm he needs an interpreter for anger". Wow, what a crushing zinger. Trump gets elected, and once again there is a show with no purpose other than ridiculing the president. This doesn't seem crazily one-sided to you? That was just one channel. Similar scenarios play out all across TV and the internet.
Trump is an enabler for the worse angels of his followers.
Since he is rich, handsome, successful and the President, he can serve as a role-model. Trump has also cultivated a communications style that allows him to get away with stuff.
Bottom line, Trump effectively tells his supporters: "You don't have to change. The world has to change to suit you. Self-improvement and inclusiveness are for losers! All your worst tendencies are 100% A-OK with me, and there are others like you! Take comfort in your negativity and retrograde attitudes!"
"Islamic radicals raping women with knives"...how do you rape a woman with a knife? She'll shorten your a$$
You really need some grammar lessons Trumpless
Given the volume of information regarding the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania ave and his debts to the Russian Oligarchs, extremism is in your mirror
The president's tiny vocabulary and idiotic grammar help him communicate with idiots because idiots understand each other better than they understand intelligent people. And he never knows anything - it's all bull. If his presidency was a show it wouldn't be reality TV it would be "My little President, Bullshit is Magic!"
"Only gone after Republican Presidents"
Right. 24/7 coverage of Travelgate, Filegate, IRSgate, Monicagate.
All false. Not one crime proven against any Clinton Employee WHILE ON Clinton payroll.
Meanwhile, not one word about Reagan's 32 felons with 129 convictions or pleas, 41's 15 Felons, and 43's 16 Felons
Want better treatment by the media?
Hire democrats
In fact, the only thing more powerful would be an acronym or emoji.
Cofveve, my friend. Cofveve...
They're effective because his followers are stupid. He called them stupid to their faces AND THEY CHEERED! Remember how he loves the poorly educated? That's elitist upper east side NYer for stupid.
So basically this confirms what we already knew.
Trump is focused exclusively on manipulating the masses emotionally. And the masses, like the stupid opiate addicted sheep they are, suck it up completely without so much as a single thought spared to how all this nonsense is affecting them at a practical level.