TITLE:
“Better Angels of Our Nature”: Warmth and Optimism in Presidential Leadership
AUTHORS:
Robert F. Bruner
KEYWORDS:
Leadership Attributes, Optimism, U.S. Presidents
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.13 No.1,
February
29,
2024
ABSTRACT: Of the attributes of presidential leadership
examined by political scientists and historians, optimism is among the most
interesting and least-studied. Do U.S.
presidents express themes of optimism more than the population? Is such
an expression associated with the person’s life experience and the context while serving in office? And does optimism influence
the presidential legacy? This study examines memoirs, inaugural addresses, and
State of the Union messages of the
post-World War II U.S. presidents. Analysis of these texts draws upon computer-based natural language
processing to identify
sentiments of optimism, which are compared
statistically to a broad sample of modern
literature and among the presidents. Analysis reveals that these
presidents express sentiments of warmth and optimism significantly more than a
mass of post-World War II literature.