Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MORES (Moral emotions in politics – how they unite, how they divide)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2025-03-31
Liberal democracy faces challenges. Some are linked to our moral values and emotions. Citizens are increasingly detached from politics, while some politicians overemotionalise political debate—widening societal divides.
MORES, an innovative research project involving nine European institutions, takes a stand against both under- and overemotionalisation of politics. When we don’t connect with politics, we miss the chance to make political decisions that impact us all. When politicians overly emotionalise public debates, it risks fuelling apathy and undermining tolerance.
Driven by science, MORES advocates for a balances approach—one that fosters constructive dialogue and strengthens democracy.
The project argues that moral emotions and moralised political identities, a key conceptual innovation, help meet the challenges posed by the emotionality of politics. Moral emotions are linked to the interests or welfare of society or others. If we feel angry about an education policy we see as bad to young people, we are likely expressing moral anger, a moral emotion.
These emotions can unite people around shred causes or divide them along moralised political identities.
MORES applies a broad research logic across 15 research tasks to build a normative-analytical framework that clarifies how moral emotions should interact with values, policies, and political practices.
Key stakeholders are involved throughout the project research. MORES will deliver several innovative toolkits. These tools will help policymakers better understand and respond to citizens’ emotional needs, teach citizens how to defend themselves against emotional influences, and support civil society in fostering democratic values and rights.
By combining research and practical tools, MORES aims to bridge the gap between citizens and politics, promote European values, and foster trust in democratic institutions.
MORES, an innovative research project involving nine European institutions, takes a stand against both under- and overemotionalisation of politics. When we don’t connect with politics, we miss the chance to make political decisions that impact us all. When politicians overly emotionalise public debates, it risks fuelling apathy and undermining tolerance.
Driven by science, MORES advocates for a balances approach—one that fosters constructive dialogue and strengthens democracy.
The project argues that moral emotions and moralised political identities, a key conceptual innovation, help meet the challenges posed by the emotionality of politics. Moral emotions are linked to the interests or welfare of society or others. If we feel angry about an education policy we see as bad to young people, we are likely expressing moral anger, a moral emotion.
These emotions can unite people around shred causes or divide them along moralised political identities.
MORES applies a broad research logic across 15 research tasks to build a normative-analytical framework that clarifies how moral emotions should interact with values, policies, and political practices.
Key stakeholders are involved throughout the project research. MORES will deliver several innovative toolkits. These tools will help policymakers better understand and respond to citizens’ emotional needs, teach citizens how to defend themselves against emotional influences, and support civil society in fostering democratic values and rights.
By combining research and practical tools, MORES aims to bridge the gap between citizens and politics, promote European values, and foster trust in democratic institutions.
Research in the first half of the project has focused on two work packages and eight research tasks.
One work package explored the context and foundations of the link between moral emotions and politics. It included the following tasks:
(1) Conceptualising moral emotions in normative democratic theory (creating a model to be tested throughout the project).
(2) A text mining analysis, using Large Language Models to study the emotionalisation of political discourses.
(3) Studying moral emotions in the media and journalism.
(4) Analysing how moral emotions appear in popular culture, especially in TV series about politics.
Another work package examined how politics triggers moral emotions. It included:
(1) A text mining analysis of emotional expressions on the social media during election campaigns.
(2) Studying the relationship between illiberal politics and emotions.
(3) Exploring the use of psychological inoculation to increase emotional regulation.
(4) Analysing how emotions appear in policy discourse.
The project also developed an AI model trained to detect emotions in political texts across several languages. While this model is designed for research, the project also developed an AI application for general use, which provides easily accessible services on identifying the emotional content of any (political) text.
One work package explored the context and foundations of the link between moral emotions and politics. It included the following tasks:
(1) Conceptualising moral emotions in normative democratic theory (creating a model to be tested throughout the project).
(2) A text mining analysis, using Large Language Models to study the emotionalisation of political discourses.
(3) Studying moral emotions in the media and journalism.
(4) Analysing how moral emotions appear in popular culture, especially in TV series about politics.
Another work package examined how politics triggers moral emotions. It included:
(1) A text mining analysis of emotional expressions on the social media during election campaigns.
(2) Studying the relationship between illiberal politics and emotions.
(3) Exploring the use of psychological inoculation to increase emotional regulation.
(4) Analysing how emotions appear in policy discourse.
The project also developed an AI model trained to detect emotions in political texts across several languages. While this model is designed for research, the project also developed an AI application for general use, which provides easily accessible services on identifying the emotional content of any (political) text.
The project developed a custom fine-tuned big data model (a so-called XLM-RoBERTa model) capable of identifying multiple emotional categories—anger, fear, disgust, sadness, joy, and “none of them”—at the sentence level in political texts. The model was made freely available for research purposes.
Using the AI model, MORES analysed the patterns and trends of the emotionalisation of political discourses in Hungary and Germany—with analysis in France and Poland underway. We identified the factors behind increased emotionalisation. For instance, it appears that opposition parties use more emotions than parties in power, and that the increase in the saliency of policy issues (like that of immigration after 2015) also increases the emotional content of political speeches.
The model also helped analysis on the emotional content of social media posts during the 2024 European elections. It seems that context matters: comparing Hungary and Germany, we found that both the uses of emotions and the reactions given by the public to emotional communications differed across the countries.
In the study of political TV series, the research highlights how anger is used to portray the rise of new, populist leaders who claim to speak for "the people" against a corrupt elite. These series often reflect a populist logic and use anger as a key emotional device.
In a groundbreaking approach, the project uses psychological inoculation as a method to increase emotional regulation—that is, awareness of and resilience to the emotional appeal of populist rhetoric. While psychological inoculation has been previously used to increase resilience to disinformation, MORES is the first research endeavour to apply it to strengthen emotional self-awareness and regulation.
MORES is also developing a normative model of democracy that considers the increased role of emotions in politics. We argue that normative democratic theory has two choices:
Either to stick to the classical normative pillars of democracy, reject identity- and emotions-based politics as part of the imperfect reality, and focus on those elements that limit the power of identity and emotions (e.g. fostering deliberative processes, de-polarising mechanisms, awareness raising on political manipulation); or develop a new normative conceptual framework.
MORES pursues the first path while keeping the second under consideration. Possible approaches include evaluating the normative rightness of identities; evaluating the consequences of identity-based choices; and appreciating the deeper existential meaning and the implications for a “good life” of the identity in question.
Using the AI model, MORES analysed the patterns and trends of the emotionalisation of political discourses in Hungary and Germany—with analysis in France and Poland underway. We identified the factors behind increased emotionalisation. For instance, it appears that opposition parties use more emotions than parties in power, and that the increase in the saliency of policy issues (like that of immigration after 2015) also increases the emotional content of political speeches.
The model also helped analysis on the emotional content of social media posts during the 2024 European elections. It seems that context matters: comparing Hungary and Germany, we found that both the uses of emotions and the reactions given by the public to emotional communications differed across the countries.
In the study of political TV series, the research highlights how anger is used to portray the rise of new, populist leaders who claim to speak for "the people" against a corrupt elite. These series often reflect a populist logic and use anger as a key emotional device.
In a groundbreaking approach, the project uses psychological inoculation as a method to increase emotional regulation—that is, awareness of and resilience to the emotional appeal of populist rhetoric. While psychological inoculation has been previously used to increase resilience to disinformation, MORES is the first research endeavour to apply it to strengthen emotional self-awareness and regulation.
MORES is also developing a normative model of democracy that considers the increased role of emotions in politics. We argue that normative democratic theory has two choices:
Either to stick to the classical normative pillars of democracy, reject identity- and emotions-based politics as part of the imperfect reality, and focus on those elements that limit the power of identity and emotions (e.g. fostering deliberative processes, de-polarising mechanisms, awareness raising on political manipulation); or develop a new normative conceptual framework.
MORES pursues the first path while keeping the second under consideration. Possible approaches include evaluating the normative rightness of identities; evaluating the consequences of identity-based choices; and appreciating the deeper existential meaning and the implications for a “good life” of the identity in question.