Does Regional Variation in Pathogen Prevalence Predict the Moralization of Language in COVID-19 News?

Malik, Musa; Chen, Yibei

doi:10.1177/0261927x211044194

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…The regional prevalence of COVID-19, measured by the number of infections, was adopted as the moderator, which reflects the motivational relevance (Malik et al, 2021). Data were extracted from the website of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (http://2019ncov.chinacdc.cn/2019-nCoV/).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In empirical studies, motivational relevance is operationalized as the strength of motivational orientation toward certain concerns (Smith & Kirby, 2009). Specifically, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional variation in pathogen prevalence reveals the different levels of motivational relevance (Malik et al, 2021). The infection rate of COVID-19 can cause concern.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kindness for Kindness: A Dual Appraisal of International Support in Response to COVID-19

Yang¹,

Cai³

et al. 2023

Journal of Travel Research

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“A friend in need is a friend indeed” well elucidates international support amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a dual-process model of emotional appraisal, this mixed-methods research aims to investigate positive psychological responses to international support. Study 1 is a multilevel investigation of the relationships between perceived support, gratitude evoked, and change in attitude toward the benefactor countries. The moderating role of motivational relevance—the province-level prevalence of COVID-19—is also examined. Study 2 uses text mining to analyze online reviews retrieved from a social media platform. The results substantiate aid-induced gratitude and reciprocity manifested through travel intentions and unravel additional factors of motivational relevance—timing, type of support, political and cultural connotations, and comparative appraisals. Study 3 employs an experimental design to validate the causal relationships and reinforces the dual-appraisal mechanism. Managerial implications are provided for destination marketers and industry practitioners to leverage positive psychology for post-pandemic promotion.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kindness for Kindness: A Dual Appraisal of International Support in Response to COVID-19

Yang¹,

Cai³

et al. 2023

Journal of Travel Research

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“…Moralization has been widespread during the Covid pandemic (Graso et al 2021). Moralizing language related to Covid has been common in news media (Malik et al 2021). Mitigating practices at an individual level, such as handwashing and social distancing, have been widely communicated as moral imperatives, leading to interactional tension between those who strictly adhere to mitigating practices and those who do not-e.g., between 'distancers' and 'nondistancers' (Prosser et al 2020).…”

Section: Covid Infection Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moralization and Mismoralization in Public Health

Kraaijeveld

Jamrozik

2022

Med Health Care and Philos

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Moralization is a social-psychological process through which morally neutral issues take on moral significance. Often linked to health and disease, moralization may sometimes lead to good outcomes; yet moralization is often detrimental to individuals and to society as a whole. It is therefore important to be able to identify when moralization is inappropriate. In this paper, we offer a systematic normative approach to the evaluation of moralization. We introduce and develop the concept of ‘mismoralization’, which is when moralization is metaethically unjustified. In order to identify mismoralization, we argue that one must engage in metaethical analysis of moralization processes while paying close attention to the relevant facts. We briefly discuss one historical example (tuberculosis) and two contemporary cases related to COVID-19 (infection and vaccination status) that we contend to have been mismoralized in public health. We propose a remedy of de-moralization that begins by identifying mismoralization and that proceeds by neutralizing inapt moral content. De-moralization calls for epistemic and moral humility. It should lead us to pull away from our tendency to moralize—as individuals and as social groups—whenever and wherever moralization is unjustified.

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“…Scholars have found that infusing a post with more moral-emotional content may contribute to its diffusion on social-media platforms (Bessi et al, 2016;Boyd et al, 2015;del Vicario et al, 2016;Malik et al, 2021;Mooijman et al, 2018;Wang & Inbar, 2021). Morally loaded stimuli tend to provide social information about people's reputation, trustworthiness, or integrity (Cosmides & Tooby, 2015;Dhaliwal et al, 2021;Haidt, 2012), which invokes mental (Skitka et al, 2021;Zaal et al, 2011) and physical action (Ginges, 2019;Rai et al, 2017).…”

Section: Overuse Of Moral Language Dampens Content Engagement On Soci...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Overuse of Moral Language Dampens Content Engagement on Social Media

Candia¹,

Atari²,

Kteily³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Online social-media platforms are a vital arena in which socio-political perspectives are put forth, debated, and spread. Prior work suggests that certain moral-emotional language drives online contagion, but theoretical and empirical findings remain debated, inhibiting constructive interventions. We substantially advance this ongoing debate using a diverse range of topics and both mainstream and extremist social media platforms. We find two countervailing dynamics predict the rise and fall of posting engagement online. First, we confirm that content infused with a greater number of moral words is associated with increased engagement; still, contrasting with prior work, we find no evidence that it is driven specifically by moral-emotional words as opposed to the more general and larger lexicon of moral language. Second, we identify a striking reversal in the relationship between moral language and engagement, a phenomenon we call “moral penalty.” We find that as the ratio of moral to non-moral words surpasses a threshold, the process of engagement around a post reverses with marked decreases in engagement and online diffusion. These findings help clarify links between morality and online engagement and contagion: infusing messages with moral language increases their spread to a point after which embedding posts in morality may backfire.

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Does Regional Variation in Pathogen Prevalence Predict the Moralization of Language in COVID-19 News?

Cited by 9 publications

References 72 publications

Kindness for Kindness: A Dual Appraisal of International Support in Response to COVID-19

Kindness for Kindness: A Dual Appraisal of International Support in Response to COVID-19

Moralization and Mismoralization in Public Health

Overuse of Moral Language Dampens Content Engagement on Social Media

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