The Politics of Shaming and Shamelessness
Navn på bevillingshaver
Tobias Widmann
Titel
Associate Professor
Institution
Aarhus University
Beløb
DKK 6,758,398
År
2025
Bevillingstype
Semper Ardens: Accelerate
Hvad?
Shame-related language is spreading in politics, but we still know little about how it is used and what it leads to. This project tracks when and where shaming and shamelessness appear in politicians’ communication, examines their impact on people’s sense of what counts as acceptable or unacceptable, and tests new ways to counter their harmful effects.
Hvorfor?
When politicians use shaming, they brand opponents as immoral outsiders. When they use shamelessness, they reassure supporters that stigmatized views or behaviors are acceptable. Understanding these practices shows how political talk can fuel hostility and tolerance for violence against opponents, threatening the shared norms that democracy depends on.
Hvordan?
I combine large-scale text analysis of political speeches and online debates with experiments and computer simulations of virtual communities. This way, I can see how shaming and shamelessness spreads, measure its impact on people, and test remedies that might strengthen civility and democratic resilience.