How Republicans and Democrats Use Morality in Discussing Political Issues

• In Event: Anayzing Rhetoric: From George Bush to the Muslim Brotherhood

Abstract

We tested whether liberals and conservatives used moral rhetoric based on different dimensions of morality to discuss six broad political issues (economy, education, health care, foreign policy, environment, and military). We used Moral Foundations Theory to test for moral divisions between Democrats, Republicans and Independents, and go on to test whether they use different moral language to talk about divisive political issues. To do this, we analyzed the moral language participants used in spontaneous political texts for evidence of a linguistic political moral divide. Results suggest that it is not political orientation, but the topic participants discuss that best predicted their use of moral language. This suggests that the political positions held by laypersons registered with different political parties may not be as different in their moral considerations as previous research has contended.

Authors

• Allison Eden, Michigan State U

• Christian Burgers, Vrije U Amsterdam

• Lindsay S Hahn, Michigan State U