The Best Words: Linguistic Indicators of Grandiose Narcissism in Politics

Abstract

At a 2015 campaign event, Donald Trump claimed, “I have the best words.” While remarks like these have inspired extensive commentary on grandiosity in politics, few studies have investigated how grandiosity manifests in political speech. This research finds that grandiose U.S. presidents (n = 35) use words differently than their humbler presidential counterparts, and differently than other grandiose individuals, including by using more “we-talk.” We theorize that grandiose individuals adjust their language based on context to find “the best words” for a particular audience.