Moral tone of right-wing Redditors varies by context, but left-wingers’ tone tends to stay steady

A new study published in PNAS Nexus provides evidence that political expression on social media may be shaped not just by ideology, but also by the perceived audience. The researchers examined language use on Reddit and found that right-leaning users tend to moralize political views more when surrounded by ideological allies. Left-leaning users, by comparison, expressed moralized political views to a similar degree regardless of whether they were among their own or in politically mixed spaces. These findings suggest that social media polarization may depend not only on what people believe, but on where and to whom they are speaking.

Partisan moralization — the tendency to treat political beliefs as moral truths and opposing views as morally wrong — plays a significant role in social and political conflict. Prior studies have linked moralized political beliefs to stronger bias, more extreme behaviors, and greater resistance to democratic norms. These moral convictions can push people to reject opposing viewpoints and avoid engagement with outgroups entirely.

While previous research has examined whether people on the left or right are more likely to moralize politics, results have been mixed. Less is known about how different political groups express these convictions in different social environments, such as when speaking among allies compared to in more ideologically diverse spaces. This study was designed to explore whether context influences how people express political morality, especially in the wide-ranging discussion spaces of Reddit.

“Social media platforms are particularly accessible to citizens for discussing politics, often enabling them to express negative views toward the opposing side,” said study author Michalis Mamakos, a postdoctoral fellow at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. “However, it is unclear whether people across the political spectrum feel equally free to express such views. Differences between left-wing and right-wing users in how freely they express their political views could undermine social media platforms’ ability to foster debates on equal terms for all participants.”

The research team used a computational approach to analyze Reddit comments posted between 2006 and 2022. They focused on users who participated both in political communities aligned with their views (such as r/democrats or r/Conservative) and in nonpolitical communities where people from across the political spectrum interact (such as r/Parenting or r/Music).

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To measure how political and moral language overlapped, the researchers trained language models known as word embeddings on the comments made by four groups: left-leaning users in left-leaning subreddits, left-leaning users in mixed-company subreddits, right-leaning users in right-leaning subreddits, and right-leaning users in mixed-company subreddits. These models allowed the researchers to capture subtle semantic patterns in how words are used, including whether certain words tended to be linked with partisan and moral concepts.

The team constructed two key semantic dimensions: one measuring the political orientation of language (left-leaning vs. right-leaning) and another measuring moral content (moral vs. immoral). For example, if users used words like “corrupt” or “righteous” in the context of political discussion, that language might carry both moral and partisan weight. A strong correlation between the two dimensions within a user’s language model would indicate high levels of partisan moralization.

The researchers found an asymmetry between left- and right-leaning users. Left-leaning users showed a strong association between political and moral language in both political subreddits and mixed-company spaces. In other words, they moralized their political views to a similar extent regardless of the audience.

Right-leaning users, on the other hand, adjusted their tone depending on the setting. Among ideological allies in right-leaning subreddits, their language strongly linked partisanship with moral content. But in mixed-company subreddits, that moralized language was dialed back. The association between partisanship and morality was still present but significantly weaker.

“When drawing conclusions about the state of polarization based on people’s behavior, it may be important to consider the context in which such behavior occurs,” Mamakos told PsyPost. “While left-wing users express polarization to the same extent regardless of social context, right-wing users express polarization more strongly when among like-minded partisans than when among the general public.”

A second analysis focused more closely on the types of partisan subreddits people used. The researchers distinguished between inherently political subreddits (like r/democrats and r/Conservative) and nonpolitical but partisan subreddits (like r/vegetarian, which had more left-leaning users, and r/Hunting, which leaned right). This allowed the team to investigate whether political expression changed based on the specific context of the community.

In these more refined categories, right-leaning users again showed more variability. Their expression of moralized partisanship was strongest in overtly political spaces. In nonpolitical but partisan subreddits, right-leaning users expressed moralized partisanship at levels similar to those of left-leaning users. Left-leaning users, by contrast, showed consistent levels of partisan moralization across both political and nonpolitical ingroup communities.

A final part of the study looked at how each group talked about the opposing side in mixed-company subreddits. The language left-leaning users used to refer to right-leaning targets often included references to religion and oppression and tended to carry moral judgments. Right-leaning users, in contrast, used more scattered and less moralized language to describe left-leaning targets. This difference may suggest that left-leaning users are more likely to treat political opposition as a moral concern, even outside explicitly political discussions.

“Freedom of speech is a particularly important topic these days, but it becomes compromised when people focus on identities rather than ideas,” Mamakos said. “Disagreements should center on ideas and lead to mutually beneficial solutions, rather than devolving into personal attacks against other discussants.”

While the study provides detailed insight into how partisan users communicate on Reddit, it does not determine why these differences occur. The researchers point out several possible explanations worth exploring. One possibility is that conservatives may be more rule-oriented and more likely to adapt their speech to match the norms of nonpolitical communities. Another is that liberals may have a more salient partisan identity and carry that into all their conversations.

The study also cannot say whether the observed patterns are driven by individual attitudes or by broader cultural dynamics. More research is needed to understand whether these trends appear on other platforms or among different types of users. Additionally, the findings rely on the assumption that subreddit participation reflects genuine political identity, which may not always be the case.

The researchers hope their work will help identify challenges to open political discourse online. “The long-term goal of this line of research is to identify issues that prevent social media platforms from serving as inclusive public spheres and ultimately suggest pathways for resolving such issues,” Mamakos explained.

The study, “Moralizing partisanship when surrounded by copartisans versus in mixed company,” was authored by Michalis Mamakos, Tessa E. S. Charlesworth, and Eli J. Finkel.