1 University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
2 Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2019 Aug;45(8):1216-1231. doi: 10.1177/0146167218809705. Epub 2018 Dec 11.
We propose that political extremists use more negative language than moderates. Previous research found that conservatives report feeling happier than liberals and yet liberals "display greater happiness" in their language than do conservatives. However, some of the previous studies relied on questionable measures of political orientation and affective language, and no studies have examined whether political orientation and affective language are nonlinearly related. Revisiting the same contexts (Twitter, U.S. Congress), and adding three new ones (political organizations, news media, crowdsourced Americans), we found that the language of liberal conservative extremists was more negative and angry in its emotional tone than that of moderates. Contrary to previous research, we found that liberal extremists' language was more negative than that of conservative extremists. Additional analyses supported the explanation that extremists feel threatened by the activities of political rivals, and their angry, negative language represents efforts to communicate as much to others.
我们提出，政治极端分子比温和派使用更多的负面语言。之前的研究发现，保守派报告说他们比自由派更快乐，但自由派在语言上“表现出更大的快乐”。然而，之前的一些研究依赖于有问题的政治取向和情感语言的衡量标准，并且没有研究检验政治取向和情感语言是否呈非线性关系。在重新审视相同的语境（Twitter、美国国会）的基础上，我们增加了三个新的语境（政治组织、新闻媒体、众包美国人），发现自由派和保守派极端分子的语言在情感语调上比温和派更加负面和愤怒。与之前的研究相反，我们发现自由派极端分子的语言比保守派极端分子的语言更负面。进一步的分析支持了这样一种解释，即极端分子感到来自政治对手活动的威胁，他们愤怒、消极的语言代表着向他人传达信息的努力。
