How Intense Language Hurts a Politician's Trustworthiness: Voter Norms of a Political Debate via Language Expectancy Theory

IF 2 3区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Journal of Language and Social Psychology Pub Date : 2023-05-04 DOI:10.1177/0261927X231171688

David E. Clementson, Wenqing Zhao, Sohyun Park

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Incivility in U.S. political debates hurts democracy. But uncivil language is more entertaining, exciting, and arousing than civil language. Given the contradictory relationship between people's general aversion and the media attention to popularized incivility, insight can be gained through examining politicians’ language intensity, a relatively common yet scarcely explored phenomenon in political debates. In a preregistered multiple-message experimental design with an original stimulus filmed for this study, participants (n = 538 registered U.S. voters) watch a debate featuring a real politician (with a real journalist moderating the debate). Participants are randomly assigned to high- or low-intensity language conditions. Inspired by language expectancy theory (LET), a multiple-mediation model is tested, whereby language intensity decreases a politician's trustworthiness through intense language being more uncivil than low-intensity language which is associated with voters’ normative expectancies. Discussion concerns the practical implications for politicians’ debate strategy and theoretical ramifications of LET via communication accommodation theory.

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激烈的语言如何损害政治家的可信度:基于语言期望理论的政治辩论的选民规范

美国政治辩论中的不文明伤害了民主。但不文明的语言比文明的语言更有趣，更令人兴奋，更令人兴奋。考虑到人们的普遍厌恶和媒体对普及的不文明行为的关注之间的矛盾关系，可以通过研究政治家的语言强度来获得洞察力，这是政治辩论中相对常见但很少被探索的现象。在预先登记的多信息实验设计中，参与者(n = 538名登记的美国选民)观看了一场由一位真正的政治家(由一位真正的记者主持)主持的辩论。参与者被随机分配到高强度或低强度的语言环境中。受语言期望理论(LET)的启发，我们测试了一个多重中介模型，即语言强度降低了政治家的可信度，因为强烈的语言比低强度的语言更不文明，而低强度的语言与选民的规范期望有关。讨论了沟通调节理论对政治家辩论策略的现实意义和LET的理论影响。

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来源期刊

Journal of Language and Social Psychology Multiple-

CiteScore

5.20

自引率

14.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Language and Social Psychology explores the social dimensions of language and the linguistic implications of social life. Articles are drawn from a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive science, sociology, communication, psychology, education, and anthropology. The journal provides complete and balanced coverage of the latest developments and advances through original, full-length articles, short research notes, and special features as Debates, Courses and Conferences, and Book Reviews.