Political communication, social cognitive processes, and voters’ judgments

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

How do our opinions of politicians depend on what politicians say and what other people tell about them or to them? In the present paper, we will focus on the relations between some subtle and indirect (but widely employed) forms of political communication and the effects they may have on the perception of political candidates. We will especially focus on attack and defense communication and on the possibility that using a subtle and indirect communicative strategy such as counterfactual statements (i.e., “If only…”) may increase the effectiveness of communication. After taking into account some pragmatic features of political communication and its links with impression formation, we will briefly review the socio-cognitive processes that previous research has shown to be connected to the generation of counterfactual thoughts. We will then examine how the use of counterfactuals in attack and defense messages may affect receivers’ judgments in the political context
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSocial cognition and communication
EditorsJ FORGAS, O VINCZE, J LASZLO
Pages283-296
Number of pages14
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Keywords

  • attack
  • political communication
  • social judgement

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