Emotional reactions of Poles to the inaugural speech of Donald J. Trump, 47th President of the USA (January 20, 2025)

Description

A biometric study on the perception of Donald J. Trump's inaugural speech was conducted on a group of over 150 students. Participants were selected based on their proficiency in English and their declared voting preferences—they answered a question about whom they would have voted for in last year's U.S. presidential election (Kamala Harris or Donald Trump) if they had the opportunity.

The study was conducted entirely remotely and involved recording facial microexpressions (facetracking – FACS, iMotions) to determine likely experienced emotions, as well as tracking participants' eye movements (Webcam Eyetracking – WebET 3.0, iMotions) to identify which elements of the speech they paid the most attention to.

Preliminary results indicate significant differences in the emotional responses of Polish "Democrats" and "Republicans" to key segments of Trump's speech. After the experimental part, participants also answered questions regarding their perception of the speech.

The following segments of the speech were selected for facetracking analysis:
1. THE FRAMEWORK OF THE GOLDEN AGE - AMERICA FIRST
2. GOD SAVED ME SO I COULD SAVE AMERICA
3. I WILL DEFEAT INFLATION BECAUSE WE WILL EXTRACT OIL, ABOLISH THE GREEN DEAL, AND BECOME AN INDUSTRIAL NATION AGAIN, INCLUDING THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR
4. TARIFFS AS A NEW SOURCE OF EXTERNAL REVENUE FOR THE AMERICAN BUDGET AND GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY
5. NO MORE DIVISIONS BASED ON RACE OR GENDER - WE ARE EITHER MEN OR WOMEN - NO MORE GENDER IDEOLOGY - COMPETENCE SHOULD BE ASSESSED ON MERIT
6. WITH A STRONG U.S. ARMY, WE WILL END WARS AND PREVENT NEW ONES - I AM A PEACEMAKER AND A UNIFIER
7. AMERICA IS BACK - THE AMERICAN GULF, NOT THE MEXICAN GULF, AND THE PANAMA CANAL SHOULD BE UNDER OUR CONTROL, NOT CHINA'S
8. LET'S BE BOLD - NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR US - WE WILL REACH MARS AND PROVE THAT IMPOSSIBLE DOES NOT EXIST FOR AMERICA

Research Questions and Hypotheses

Questions:

What emotions dominate among Polish students while watching excerpts from the U.S. president’s inaugural speech, depending on their declared voting preferences?
Which visual aspects of the U.S. president’s inaugural speech excerpts attract the most attention from Polish students?
How do declared voting preferences influence reported emotions and perceptions of the candidates after watching excerpts from the U.S. president’s inaugural speech?

Hypotheses:

Students with declared voting preferences (1-2 for Trump and 9-10 for Harris) will exhibit stronger emotions aligned with their preferences while watching excerpts from the U.S. president’s inaugural speech, if it was delivered by their preferred candidate.
Eyetracking will show that Polish students pay attention to different visual elements depending on their declared voting preferences.
Students identified as supporters of a given candidate (1-2 for Trump and 9-10 for Harris) will exhibit greater confidence in their candidate and more positive emotions in the declarative part of the study (surveys), compared to students with opposing voting preferences.

Researchers involved

Tomasz Gackowski

Prof.

Professor Tomasz Gackowski is an established media & communication scholar, historian, and economist, specializing in social communication and media studies. He holds the position of professor at the University of Warsaw, specifically in the Department of Social Communication and Public Relations at the Faculty of Journalism, Information, and Book Studies. He also heads the Laboratory of Media Studies at the university. Additionally, he was the Deputy Director for Research and International Cooperation at the Institute of Journalism at Warsaw University (2012-2016) and served as vice-chair of the Mediatization section of ECREA (2022-2024). Furthermore, Professor Gackowski leads the initiative II.3.4 "Gamification of Worlds in Service of a Modern 21st-Century Society" as part of the Excellence Initiative – Research University program (2020-2026).

Karolina Brylska

PhD

Media researcher, assistant at the Department of Social Communication and Public Relations of the Faculty of Journalism, Information and Bibliology and the University of Warsaw. Deputy head of the Laboratory of Media Studies at the University of Warsaw.

Marcin Łączyński

PhD student at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw. A graduate of the Institute of Journalism of the University of Warsaw, specializing in Media Marketing and PR and the Faculty of Economics of the University of Warsaw (Statistical methods in business). Author of the blogs gry-szkoleniowe.blogspot.com, przedwyruszeniem.blogspot.com and the book published in 2013 and awarded by PTTB "Gry Szkoleniowe. Practical Guide ". His research interests include the study of games (digital and analog), gamers and their communities, the use of narrative in games, and gamification.

Adam Balcerzak

MSc

Researcher and academic lecturer, member of the Laboratory of Media Studies at the University of Warsaw (LBM UW), specializing in artificial intelligence, biometrics, and human-technology interactions. PhD candidate at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences, University of Warsaw, in the field of social communication and media studies. He holds a Master of Science in Engineering in Computer Science. His research interests include the triangulation of declarative and biometric methods, the application of biometrics in the humanities, the analysis of user responses to AI-generated content, and virtual reality. He collaborates with national and international institutions, including the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in France, where he conducts research on the biometric analysis of FPV drone operators' reactions in a VR environment. Author and co-author of scientific publications and reports, as well as a participant in international conferences, including ICA HTT, MIDI, and the National Methodological Conference of Media Researchers. As an IT practitioner, he specializes in virtualization, hosting, CMS systems, and digital accessibility. He is an organizer and co-organizer of scientific events, including the WMEMC 2025 conference and the ICA Human Tech Transition regional conference. He has teaching experience in new media, mobile technologies, and information systems.

Used sensors/methods

Webcam based eye-tracking

Affectiva facetracking

Surveys