Approaching Moral Emotions and Moral Emotion Management in Election Campaigns: Introduction

This chapter introduces a framework elucidating the role of moral emotions in political communication, aiming to contribute to interdisciplinary understanding. It outlines research question of the volume regarding moral emotions in public discourse, particularly during the 2022 Hungarian election campaigns. Defining morality as societal codes of conduct, it explores moralising in politics and advocates a functionalist perspective emphasising moral pluralism. While acknowledging morality’s normative nature in political rhetoric, it explores its instrumentalisation and cultivation, for example, management, for persuasion and voter appeal. The chapter also discusses the use of moral language to elevate political conflicts and emphasises the collective, emotive, and discursive nature of political moralising, often aimed at bolstering one’s status and disparaging opponents.