Moral Concerns and Policy Attitudes: Investigating the Influence of Elite Rhetoric

Abstract

A growing body of research documents the crucial role played by moral concerns in the formation of attitudes and a wide range of political behaviors. Yet extant models of moral judgment portray a direct linkage between moral intuitions and policy attitudes, leaving little room for the influence of political context. In this article, we argue that political rhetoric plays an important role in facilitating the connection between moral intuitions and political attitudes. Using a unique combination of media content analysis of the stem cell debate and individual-level measures of the public's moral foundations, we examine the role of rhetoric in linking a person's moral foundations to his or her attitudes. Our results show that individuals who are the most likely to have been exposed to political rhetoric have the strongest connection between their moral foundations and their attitudes on the issue. We also find that rhetoric was persuasive on this moralized issue and present suggestive evidence that it was most persuasive among those who endorsed the relevant moral foundation.

How Disgust Influences Health Purity Attitudes

“…In the health domain, claiming the presence of ''toxic chemicals'' in vaccines or GMOs may be an effective way to induce disgust in the listener. Whether interest groups choose to frame their causes in terms of purity or alternative motivations could have important implications for the ideological makeup of supporters and the political future of these issues (Clifford et al 2015;Feinberg and Willer 2013).…”

The Mobilizing Effect of Parties' Moral Rhetoric

“…Another strand of research measures moral rhetoric in the media to understand how it is used in a specific issue and how it influences public opinion on the issue (Clifford and Jerit ; Clifford et al. ). By examining the media, the studies address one of the sources of voters' moral convictions.…”

“…Second, my article contributes to previous work on morality and politics (Clifford and Jerit ; Clifford et al. ; Lipsitz ; Ryan , ) by extending this area of research to the party level and beyond the United States into a comparative context. Third, my article adds to the literature on emotions and political participation (Brader ; Valentino et al.…”

“…Political scientists have adapted and used it in their research (Clifford and Jerit ; Clifford et al. ; Kraft ; Lipsitz ).…”

Moral reframing: A technique for effective and persuasive communication across political divides

“…Finally, a third category of moral reframing research has explored its efficacy in shaping liberals' and conservatives' attitudes on issues that are largely nonpolitical or, at least, not strongly aligned with either liberal or conservative political ideologies. These studies have targeted outcomes like vaccine hesitancy, diversity and inclusion, and stem cell technology (Amin et al, 2017;Brannon, Carter, Murdock-Perriera, & Higginbotham, 2018;Clifford, Jerit, Rainey, & Motyl, 2015;Hoover et al, 2018;Kljajic & Feinberg, 2019;Lee, Yoon, Lee, & Royne, 2018;Winterich, Mittal, & Aquino, 2013). Along these lines, a handful of studies have examined the effects of moral reframing on liberals' and conservatives' tendencies to donate money to different types of charities.…”