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The “big two” in political communication: The effects of attacking and defending politicians’ leadership and morality in two European countries. Special issue: The Big Two in Social Judgement.

Bertolotti, Mauro, Catellani, Patrizia, Douglas, Karen, Sutton, Robbie M. (2013) The “big two” in political communication: The effects of attacking and defending politicians’ leadership and morality in two European countries. Special issue: The Big Two in Social Judgement. Social Psychology, 44 . pp. 117-128. ISSN 1864-9335. (KAR id:31282)

Abstract

In two experimental studies (conducted in Britain and Italy), participants read about a politician answering to leadership- versus morality-related allegations using either downward counterfactuals (“things could have been worse, if…”) or upward counterfactuals (“things could have been better, if…”). Downward messages increased the perception of the politician’s leadership, while both downward and upward messages increased morality perception. Political sophistication moderated the effect of message direction, with downward messages increasing perceived morality in low sophisticates and upward messages increasing perceived morality in high sophisticates. In the latter group, the acknowledgement of a responsibility-taking intent mediated morality judgment. Results were consistent across different countries, highlighting previously unexplored effects of communication on the perception of the “Big Two” dimensions.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled keywords: social perception; counterfactual communication; political sophistication.
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: Karen Douglas
Date Deposited: 05 Oct 2012 10:23 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 17:08 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/31282 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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