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Description: Can theories of power be used to explain differences in the linguistic styles of Donald Trump and Joe Biden? We argue that the two candidates possess and use different forms of power—and that this is associated with typical language patterns. Referring to Russell’s forms of power, the dominance-prestige framework, and lay theories of power, we argue that Trump’s power can be characterized as coercive and naked or revolutionary, and as being based in dominance. By contrast, Biden’s power may be described as collaborative and traditional and as being grounded in prestige. Using several LIWC categories and the moral foundations dictionary, we analyzed over 500 speeches and 15,000 tweets during the 2020 election battle. Biden’s speeches can be described as being analytical and frequently relating to moral values, whereas Trump’s speeches were characterized by a positive emotional tone. In tweets, Biden used more social words and words related to virtue, honesty, and achievement than Trump did. Tweets were more in line with our predictions than speeches, which may reflect the fact that tweets are more spontaneous than speeches. Party affiliation and the roles of incumbent versus challenger may also contribute to the different linguistic styles.

License: CC-By Attribution 4.0 International

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