Boston, Massachusetts (PRWEB) October 30, 2015
Forbes Consulting Group, the leading market research company that directly accesses the emotional brain to discover consumers’ deep emotional reactions, announced today that it has released a new study decoding the emotions that Donald Trump – and his candidacy – are evoking from voters. Using the company’s proprietary applied-neuroscience technique, MindSight® Motivational Profiling, analysts conducted an online study with registered voters aged 18 – 65+ who were likely to vote in the upcoming election. Overall, the study found that the idea of Trump as president elicits significantly more negative (62%) emotions than positive (38%). Voters revealed their anxiety and insecurities about a Trump presidency, sharing their feelings with terms like “Fearful”, “Afraid”, “At Risk” and “In Danger.”
“Trump certainly has touched a nerve with voters,” said Dr. David Forbes, Chief Innovation Officer at Forbes Consulting and author of newly-released The Science of Why. “His ‘emotional energy,’ as measured by our MindSight tool, is extremely high and our study reveals an interesting dichotomy among voters in our country. To his supporters, Donald Trump can move our country forward – he could be the strong leader we need, a breath of fresh air. However, the emotions unlocked in our study indicate that a majority of voters feel Trump as president may create a fearful country. In any event, the next twelve months will be a fascinating ride!”
The Forbes study also analyzed how the emotional appeal of Donald Trump was related to factors like age, gender and political party affiliation. Age was particularly interesting, as many have hypothesized that Trump would appeal to younger voters such as millennials due to his focus on the economy and millennials’ positive view of capitalism. By contrast, the study’s MindSight® results reveal the youngest voters (18-32 year olds) express the most negative emotions (72%) of any age group. Like voters in general, they seem to be extremely fearful of Trump becoming president. Their concerns were conveyed through feelings like “trapped”, “frustrated” and “imprisoned.” These younger voters do not necessarily correlate Trump’s business success with success for the county.
Among voters expressing more positive feelings, Trump has connected based primarily on his successes and achievements in business and life. These voters describe Trump with more aspirational feelings like “successful”, “victorious” and “winner.”
Based on the results of the Forbes Consulting Group’s study, men and women displayed varying emotionality about Trump. According to the MindSight® results, women show significantly more net negativity toward the idea of Trump becoming president while men appear more enamored and in awe of Trump’s accomplishments – extending beyond his financial success to other areas like confidence, intellect, power, fearlessness and control. In fact, Trump may be emerging as the quintessential alpha male. “For a certain segment of the population, primarily middle-aged males, Trump is perceived as a leader and the embodiment of the ‘American dream,’” hypothesized Dr. Forbes.
About MindSight®:
MindSight® is a proprietary technique derived from applied neuroscience that uncovers the specific subconscious emotions driving consumer behavior in realtime. MindSight® has
three key components:
- The Emotional Discovery Window: Forbes Consulting Group's patent-pending rapid exposure-rapid response technique circumvents the influence of the rational mind – obtaining authentic subconscious emotional insight from consumers.
- The Leading Model of Human Motivation: Forbes Consulting Group's academically accepted Unified Model of Human Motivation identifies the specific emotions driving consumer behavior – explaining why consumers act as they do. (See David L. Forbes, Ph.D., "Toward a Unified Theory of Human Motivation," Review of General Psychology June 2011).
- Talking to the Emotional Brain: Forbes Consulting Group's proprietary image library contains hundreds of emotionally evocative images that have been statistically validated to correspond to the Unified Model of Human Motivation – enabling researchers to talk directly to the emotional mind.
About Forbes Consulting Group
The Forbes Consulting Group (FCG) is a strategic and innovative market research company providing global clients with deeper levels of insight about emotions and motivations - and helping them gain strategic market advantage on the strength of these insights. Throughout its history, Forbes Consulting Group has become a valued resource for Fortune 500 companies worldwide, with a focus on financial services, CPG, retail, advertising and pharmaceuticals. In 2015, FCG was acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network and joined forces with Copernicus Marekting, a market research consultancy specializing in data analytics. By integrating expertise in psychology and applied neuroscience with Copernicus’ expertise in data analytics, Copernicus unlocks the who, what and why of consumer behavior. For more information, including the opportunity to receive a demo of their flagship products, MindSight® Motivational Profiling, Mindsight® Mobile or MindSight® Experiential Discovery, please contact sales(at)forbesconsulting(dot)com and follow the company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
