Morality, parenting and politics: How to talk about it
Harland, A.*, & Kurczek, J. (2013, April). Morality, parenting and politics: How to talk about it. Poster presentation at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Student Research Conference, Cedar Falls, IA.
• Metaphors are rich, powerful devices that can be used to easily convey complicated
messages.
• Their use in political discourse serves as a way to potentially influence a person’s
agreeability with or understanding of complex subjects.
• However, while previous work has implicated that the use of metaphor by both dominant
political parties in the US, the metaphorical roots used by each party can be traced back to
two very distinct, conceptualizations of morality.
• This begs the questions whether one system of metaphorical political discourse is more
effective than the other and whether that is modulated by a person’s own party.
• Moral views are major factors that influence political opinions. Every political stance can be explained by one's moral position on the inner value of human beings and their role in society.
