Die Studie ergab, dass Trump und Harris im Jahr 2024 eine unterschiedliche Rhetorik verwendeten – aber mehr Ähnlichkeiten als erwartet teilte

From the article: A new linguistic analysis [published](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0324715) in PLOS One suggests that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris employed distinct rhetorical strategies during the U.S. presidential debate—but they also shared several unexpected linguistic similarities. The findings indicate that some stylistic differences commonly associated with Republican and Democratic rhetoric may have blurred during the high-stakes debate.

Political debates provide a unique opportunity to analyze how candidates craft their language in real time, under pressure, while addressing voters from across the political spectrum. The researchers behind the study aimed to determine whether Trump and Harris’ rhetorical styles aligned with broader patterns typically associated with their respective parties.

Previous work suggests that Democrats tend to emphasize inclusivity, empathy, and collective responsibility, while Republicans focus on individual authority, traditional values, and strength. The new study sought to examine whether such tendencies were reflected in the candidates’ language during the 2024 debate.

“My research group is funded by an EU grant for the ABSTRACTION Project, where we investigate how language and word choice in particular shapes abstract thinking and social interaction,” explained corresponding author Marianna Bolognesi, a professor of linguistics at the University of Bologna and principal investigator of the ABSTRACTION Project.

“The 2024 Trump–Harris debate offered a valuable case study to test whether the ‘red’ and ‘blue’ language styles identified in previous research would persist when both candidates were confronted with the same questions under identical constraints. We expected to find clear differences, but instead observed far fewer than anticipated, suggesting that both candidates adjusted their language to the context of the debate.”

For the study, Bolognesi and her co-author Philipp Wicke analyzed full transcripts of the September 2024 debate between Trump and Harris, broadcast on ABC News. The researchers used a mixed-methods approach combining large language models, lexical databases, and human annotation. They assessed over 100 individual responses from Trump and Harris, applying both manual and automated tools to identify linguistic patterns.

“THEYRE EATING THE CATS THEYRE EATING THE DOGS!” Yeah so similar.

the illusion of choice