The lexical divide: propositive modes and non-agentic attitudes define the progressive left in Chile
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11, Article number: 908 (2024)
Abstract
Internal factors-such as psychological traits or individual attitudes-relate to and explain political cleavages. Yet, little is known about how locus of control, agency, and modal attitudes impact political ideology. Utilizing textual analysis within the context of the Chilean 2015 constituent process, we go beyond traditional survey methods to explore community clusters in “Values” and “Rights” networks built upon the deliberation of 106,000 people. Our findings reveal distinct attitudinal patterns across political orientations: the progressive left generally exhibits a more propositive and non-agentic attitude, the traditional left adopts an evaluative stance towards values, and the right-wing community leans towards a factual attitude but shifts to an evaluative stance when discussing rights. These results underscore the role of psychological constructs in shaping political ideologies and introduce textual analysis as a robust tool for psychological and political inquiry. The study offers a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of political behavior and provides a new lens through which to examine the psychology of political ideology.
Introduction
In an era characterized by political polarization and social unrest, the rise of the New Left offers a compelling lens through which to explore the psychological traits that shape political affiliations. The grassroots movements led by Bernie Sanders in the United States and “Podemos” in Spain serve as illustrative examples, each attracting individuals with distinct psychological profiles. In the United States, Bernie Sanders’ campaigns have galvanized individuals with a strong sense of agency, who believe that their actions can effectuate societal change (Bandura 2006; Smyth 2018). This aligns with the broader understanding that a sense of agency, often associated with an internal locus of control, can significantly influence political engagement (Smyth 2018).
"Podemos” has similarly attracted individuals with a strong sense of agency in Spain. This is consistent with the broader academic consensus that enduring psychological differences, such as openness to new experiences, significantly influence political participation and ideological affiliation (Mondak 2010; Sibley et al. 2012).
In Chile, the “Frente Amplio” has led massive social protests, advocating for constitutional reform and greater social equality. This movement has garnered attention for attracting individuals with a collective sense of agency and a focus on social justice. This is particularly relevant as we aim to compare our findings about this group with traditional left and right political affiliations in Chile (González et al. 2008; Torcal and Mainwaring 2003).
A pressing question emerges from this setting: How do individual psychological traits like sense of agency differentiate among affiliations with the New Left, traditional left, and traditional right political parties in Chile?
To delve deeper into this complex interplay of psychological constructs and political ideology, we turn to innovative methodologies that go beyond traditional survey-based approaches, which often struggle with inherent biases, such as socially desirable responding (an exceedingly positive self-description), acquiescent responding (tendency to agree with statements regardless of their contents), and extreme responding (tendency to use the extreme choices on a rating scale). All of these tendencies may vary between individuals because of differences in personality, turning themselves into confounding variables (Paulhus et al. 2007).1
In recent years, text analysis has emerged as a promising avenue for psychological inquiry. Particularly, the “psychological language analysis” approach posits that our language serves as a mirror reflecting our psychological states (Boyd and Schwartz 2021). This foundational premise has led scholars to validate the efficacy of language in deducing psychological states across various domains, including neuropsychology and political behavior (Kacewicz et al. 2014; Vine et al. 2020).
However, the prevailing “words as attention” paradigm in text analysis may limit our understanding of the nuanced relationship between language and psychology (Boyd and Schwartz 2021). Responding to a growing call for a more expansive approach, we aim to go beyond mere description to explore the underlying motivations behind linguistic patterns. Guided by the principle that “our words echo our thoughts” (Pennebaker et al. 2014), we shift our focus from content to linguistic structures.
This shift is particularly relevant in the current digital age, where the rise of social movements and the proliferation of communication platforms have revolutionized how political agency is perceived and exercised. In this new landscape, political agency has evolved to adopt a more multiplex view, considering the specific contexts and power dynamics inherent in communication processes (Kavada 2016). This shift is further influenced by a systems worldview, which moderates the relationship between agency and civic engagement (Moore et al. 2016; Rosen and Salling 1971).
Our research is set against the backdrop of the Chilean 2015 constituent process boosted by digital technologies, a largely uncharted territory in this field (Raveau et al. 2022a, b, 2023). We analyze community clusters in co-ocurrence networks of “Values” and “Rights” based on the data gathered in the participatory phase of this process. Using these clusters we seek to uncover the linguistic fingerprints that are indicative of specific political orientations. Notably, we find that these community clusters exhibit a high level of agreement in their decisions, emphasizing the role of texts that come from a group discussion, as valid markers for individual political ideology.
In summary, this paper aims to weave together these diverse threads—ranging from the psychology of modal attitude of control and agency to the digital transformation of political engagement and the emerging methodologies in text analysis. We aim to understand how individual psychology shapes political ideology. Through our multi-faceted approach, we aspire to contribute to the evolving discourse on the psychology of political behavior
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