Abstract
How can we detect narratives that legitimize the use of force? Using the ‘hero-protector narrative’ as a theoretical model to understand how political leaders manufacture collective emotions when advocating the use of force as the only effective and morally acceptable option, we show how such an argument can be tested using computer-assisted narrative analysis. Based on a case study of political speeches and statements legitimizing-and others rejecting-the use of force in the context of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, we suggest that our methodology offers an innovative approach to uncover similarities (and differences) across narratives used to mobilize collective emotions of moral anger and compassion .
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Notes
- 1.
We used the letters A for ‘aggression’, A bis for ‘aggression in the past’, R for ‘reaction’, R bis for ‘reaction in the past’, and N for ‘future end state’, which correspond to the five narrative sequences.
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Acknowledgments
Parts of this chapter are based on the article “The “Hero-Protector Narrative”: Manufacturing Emotion al Consent for the Use of Force”, published by the authors in the journal Political Psychology, available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi?DOI=10.1111%2Fpops.12385. We thank the journal editors for their friendly permission to reuse some of the results presented in this article.
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Sangar, E., Clément, M., Lindemann, T. (2018). Of Heroes and Cowards: A Computer-Based Analysis of Narratives Justifying the Use of Force. In: Clément, M., Sangar, E. (eds) Researching Emotions in International Relations. Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65575-8_8
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