Morality in 280 Characters: Investigating Moral Language Use in Tweets from the 116th U.S. Senate (2023)

Undergraduate: Daniel Reich

Faculty Advisor: N/A N/A
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt & Graham, 2007; Haidt & Joseph 2004) argues that there exist (at least) five moral foundations that appear universally across cultures. These foundations serve as a baseline, upon which cultures create their own unique set of values and beliefs. Further research has shown that there are key differences in the foundations endorsed by liberals and conservatives. (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009). Liberals tend to more heavily endorse the foundations of Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity, compared to Conservatives who more often endorse Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Subversion, and Purity/Sanctity. The present study utilized dictionary-based text analysis in order to assess the differences between moral language used by Republican and Democrat U.S. Senators on Twitter. The goal of the study is to serve as a preliminary investigation into the types of moral language each party uses when tweeting about certain topics (e.g. immigration, COVID-19 vaccines, and abortion). Future studies would investigate whether appealing to different moral foundations when discussing certain political issues might promote open-mindedness or ideological change.

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