Moral Language and Political Polarisation: An Overview

ABSTRACT With rising levels of political polarisation leading to increasing hostility and legislative stalemates, understanding the psychological mechanisms that underlie and exacerbate this polarisation is more critical than ever. Increasing moral divides may contribute to high levels of polarisation, particularly increases in affective polarisation whereby partisans not only disagree with each other's views, but have increasingly negative emotions like dislike and distrust toward members of the opposing side. As political identities become more enmeshed with moral values and group identity processes, compromise and bipartisanship become increasingly difficult. Research on the moral language used in political contexts suggests that moral rhetoric may have important behavioural consequences, particularly in social media contexts where using moral language may garner greater attention and engagement.