Talking about what would happen versus what happened: Tracking Congressional speeches during COVID-19
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Park, Rinseo
Baek, Young Min
Abstract / Description
In counterfactual thinking, an imagined alternative to the reality that comprises an antecedent and a consequent is widely adopted in political discourse to justify past behaviors (i.e., counterfactual explanation) or to depict a better future (i.e., prefactual). However, they have not been properly addressed in political communication literature. Our study examines how politicians used counterfactual expressions for explanation of the past or preparation of the future during COVID-19, one of the most severe public health crises. All Congressional speeches of the Senate and House in the 116th Congress (2019-2020) were retrieved, and counterfactual expressions were identified along with time-focusing in each speech, using recent advances in natural language processing (NLP) techniques. The results show that counterfactuals were more practiced among Democrats in the Senate and Republicans in the House. With the spread of the pandemic, the use of counterfactuals decreased, maintaining a partisan gap in the House. However, it was nearly stable, with no party differences in the Senate. Implications of our findings are discussed, regarding party polarization, institutional constraints, and the quality of Congressional deliberation. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also provided.
Keyword(s)
counterfactuals time-focusing Congressional deliberation COVID-19 natural language processing (NLP)Persistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2021-12-01
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
9
Issue
2
Page numbers
608–622
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Park, R., & Baek, Y. M. (2021). Talking about what would happen versus what happened: Tracking Congressional speeches during COVID-19. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 9(2), 608-622. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.6153
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jspp.v9i2.6153.pdfAdobe PDF - 584.24KBMD5: aea355903b1bb59531f13db2b34557f8
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Park, Rinseo
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Baek, Young Min
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-04-14T11:24:14Z
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Made available on2022-04-14T11:24:14Z
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Date of first publication2021-12-01
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Abstract / DescriptionIn counterfactual thinking, an imagined alternative to the reality that comprises an antecedent and a consequent is widely adopted in political discourse to justify past behaviors (i.e., counterfactual explanation) or to depict a better future (i.e., prefactual). However, they have not been properly addressed in political communication literature. Our study examines how politicians used counterfactual expressions for explanation of the past or preparation of the future during COVID-19, one of the most severe public health crises. All Congressional speeches of the Senate and House in the 116th Congress (2019-2020) were retrieved, and counterfactual expressions were identified along with time-focusing in each speech, using recent advances in natural language processing (NLP) techniques. The results show that counterfactuals were more practiced among Democrats in the Senate and Republicans in the House. With the spread of the pandemic, the use of counterfactuals decreased, maintaining a partisan gap in the House. However, it was nearly stable, with no party differences in the Senate. Implications of our findings are discussed, regarding party polarization, institutional constraints, and the quality of Congressional deliberation. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also provided.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationPark, R., & Baek, Y. M. (2021). Talking about what would happen versus what happened: Tracking Congressional speeches during COVID-19. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 9(2), 608-622. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.6153en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/5664
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6268
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.6153
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.5241
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Keyword(s)counterfactualsen_US
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Keyword(s)time-focusingen_US
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Keyword(s)Congressional deliberationen_US
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Keyword(s)COVID-19en_US
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Keyword(s)natural language processing (NLP)en_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleTalking about what would happen versus what happened: Tracking Congressional speeches during COVID-19en_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue2
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers608–622
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Volume9
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Visible tag(s)Version of Recorden_US