Moral Psychology And Political Campaigns

Theories of moral psychology suggest that American partisans rely on different moral domains to inform their political decision making (Haidt 2012; Lakoff 1996). This project addresses the use of moral framing, language, and traits in American political campaigns. It first examines the language of campaigns to ascertain if Democratic and Republican candidates use moral language in line with moral theories and then attempts to understand if using this language can affect the public in a meaningful way. Overall, the research suggests that campaigns frequently use moral language, though it does not strictly conform to the predictions of existing moral theory frameworks. However, the results suggest that effects of moral campaign messages are real. Specifically, candidates that increase their use of specific moral domains in their advertising increase their support in the polls. Similarly, survey experiment results suggest that Republicans and Democrats prefer candidates who emphasize different moral traits.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. in Political Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Hanel, Joel Andrew

Contributors dc:contributor

• Conor Dowling
• Elicia Lair
• Doug Rice

• Campaign Advertisements
• Moral Foundations Theory
• Morals
• Political Campaigns
• Political Science

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/781

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1780