Moral Language during the COVID-19 pandemic – content analysis of politicians’ speeches

Politicians’ crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic differed greatly, and so did its persuasiveness to the public. Based on research that has identified pluralistic moral framing as crucial for the persuasion of messages, I propose that the moral framing of politician’s COVID-19 narratives was critical to their impact on the citizens, and thus, the pandemic management of a country. I investigate the prime minister’s moral language of two countries with very different pandemic outcomes: Britain and New Zealand. The application of the Moral Foundations Dictionary (Graham, Haidt & Nosek, 2009) on the politicians’ COVID-19-related parliament speeches indicates their moral framing, dividing morality into two individualizing (harm and fairness), and three binding foundations (ingroup, authority, and purity). Hypotheses on the emphasis of individualizing vs. binding foundations of Jacinda Ardern vs. Boris Johnson due to ideological gaps, as well as the discrepancy in the diversity of the moral framing have not been confirmed by preliminary results. However, the results do demonstrate a different moral communication strategy of the two politicians. Johnson frequently used words associated with the purity foundation in the beginning of the pandemic, indicating an emphasis on disease-specific language. Ardern emphasised, among others, the ingroup foundation from early on, appealing to citizens as a team to endure new restrictions together. Former research identified her accent on social solidarity as a highly effective element in her successful pandemic crisis communication, which corresponds with my results that imply the importance of moral narratives portraying ingroup solidarity. Further analyses, both methodological and for other political leaders, are planned. My work contributes to explanations for varying citizen compliance and leadership performance during the pandemic, and has implications for the study of political crisis communication.