For Deliberation Sake Show Some Constructive Emotion! How Different Types of Emotions Affect the Deliberative Quality of Subsequent User Comments

Deliberation is classically understood as a communication process where equal participants justify their positions in a respectful, reciprocal manner, always willing to accept the force of the better argument. In this perspective deliberation is firmly seen as rational discourse via argumentation (Habermas, 1984). However, other scholars, particularly from a feminist tradition, have argued that deliberation research should shift away from the idea of pure argumentation to a form of discourse that incorporates alternative forms of communication such as emotional expression, storytelling and humor (e.g., Black, 2008). According to this inclusive concept of deliberation, emotions offer the opportunity to „reflect the arguer's deeper, underlying convictions or position” (Walton, 1992: 27) and therefore may promote empathy and mutual understanding (e.g., Morrell, 2010). However, emotions during discussions can also be detrimental if they are used to manipulate others (Dryzek, 2000). In this paper, we contend that some types of emotional expressions have a positive effect on deliberative quality. Walton (1992) explains that appeals to emotions are not an obstacle to arguments but can back up arguments by emphasizing their relevance. Furthermore, empirical studies have shown that expressions of emotions may go hand in hand with argumentation and reciprocity (Esau et al., 2017). While previous research focused mostly on differences between positive and negative emotions(Hoggett & Thompson, 2002; Marcus et al., 2005), we introduce an alternative distinction: emotional expressions are constructive or non-constructive depending on what they are related to. Whilst constructive emotions focus on the discussed issue, non-constructive emotions refer to other participants, e.g. to their personality or credibility. We expect that the latter lead to a decrease in deliberative quality. Against this backdrop, the paper investigates how different types of emotional expressions affect the deliberative quality of subsequent reciprocal user comments in online deliberation.