Boosting Public Discourse: Towards a Targeted, Evidence-Based Strategy to Improve Moral Reasoning

Background and rationale The public discourse on Covid-19 and its shortcomings have highlighted the importance of a clear and consistent usage of moral key terms that have practical implications for pandemic management. Diverse understandings of terms such as 'autonomy', 'freedom' and 'dignity', 'justice', 'solidarity, 'responsibility' and 'proportionality' have shaped how pandemic measures have been received by individuals and social groups. For instance, the concept of solidarity has been invoked to justify equal access to treatment notwithstanding vaccine status, while it has also been argued that the lack of solidarity shown by those who refused vaccination for non-medical reasons justified posteriorizing their care in case of scarcity. Whereas mutual accusations of moral failure will only lead to polarization, an exchange on the meanings and potentially shared understanding of terms such as solidarity might lead to a more constructive public discourse and, eventually, to greater societal resilience to severe crises. Overall objectives and specific aimsOur project intends to a) contribute to a better understanding of how public discourse may fail due to an unreflective use of moral key terms and b) probe a strategy for improving readiness for public discourse through a well-reflected use of moral key terms. Specifically, we aim to 1) analyze and map how moral key terms are used and comprehended in pandemic-related public discourses, performing a detailed analysis of press releases from the government, media outlets, social media, and focus groups with populations less vocal on social media; 2) provide a philosophical analysis of common conceptual and argumentative pitfalls regarding the use of moral key terms in public discourses; 3) develop and pilot-test an innovative gamified intervention that empowers users to reflect on their understanding of moral key terms and to train their clear and consistent use in moral arguments; 4) devise an evaluation strategy for interventions aiming to improve moral reasoning skills as an important element of readiness for public discourse. Methods and expected results The project will combine components of text mining and natural language processing, discourse analysis, philosophical analysis and qualitative methods (vignette-based interviews, focus groups). The expected results include an account of common pitfalls in the use of moral key terms in pandemic-related public discourse; a pilot-tested gamified intervention aiming to help avoid those pitfalls; and a strategy for evaluating the impact of the game (and possibly similar projects) on users' readiness for discourse. Potential impactEmpowering citizens, particularly the young generation, to engage constructively in high-quality public discourses will facilitate the search for the best actions to take in times of crisis, increase the democratic legitimation of measures and strengthen societal resilience and cohesion.