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Me too, Donald!

Donald Trump is not giving narcissism transplants.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

CLAIM: Donald Trump is giving narcissism transplants to 1000 Facebook users who share his message on Facebook.

Example: [Collected from Facebook December 2015]

ORIGIN: Donald Trump has been saying amazing things, and is hardly shy, so the posting seems plausible. A top flight narcissist would not turn down a chance to spread his world view. With Trump's legendary stamina, we estimate that if he donated 10% of his ego, the other 90% would quickly grow to replace it. Though 10% of his ego amortized across 1000 people would give each recipient a mere 0.1 millitrumps, that would nonetheless suffice to raise someone from the level of Pope Francis to the level of William Shatner [1]. It's unclear how the Trump organization would search through the day's posts, but as a world-renowned Internet expert he must know how to do it, so this too seems plausible

But Insipid Morning America never mentioned this offer. We also checked Chattering Today, and they never aired anything about this. Textual analysis reveals un-Trumpian vocabulary: "narcissism" seems like a big word for a guy who targets the 4th-grade level. Furthermore, the posting lacks Trump's usual hyperbole, insensitivity, and jingoism, so it seems doubtful that it came from The Donald.

This is just another instance of the "something for nothing" scam, which predates the Internet, but now skips the entry barrier of paying postage. Skeptics recognize that there is no shortcut. If you want to be a narcissist, you'll have to pursue your dream the usual way: keep taking selfies, contemplate your own exceptionalism, and keep everyone up to date on your extraordinary ability. Also consider running for office.

Reference

[1] "Early experience with ego transference", Johannes Stuss, Journal of the Taurus Excretory Institute, 4(1), pp. 2i—3i+1.

LAST UPDATED: 28 December 2015.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 28 December 2015.

Acknowledgement: Snops.com is indebted to Arch S. Robison for bringing our attention to the TEI paper.