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Article published In: Cognitive Linguistic Studies
Vol. 4:2 (2017) ► pp.293–312

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Judgments under emotioncy’s influence

A case of linguistic bias

 | Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
 | Tarbiat Modares University (Iran)
Published online: 16 March 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00006.pis
Abstract
Following a number of studies on discovering the controlling dormant forces in linguistic biases, this study attempts to introduce the concept of emotioncy as a driving force in explicating the causes of prejudice manifested through biases in speech. To this end, two scales for measuring individuals’ bias and their emotioncy levels were devised and validated through Rasch measurement. A total number of 341 participants were asked to take the scales. Afterward, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to investigate the probable relationships between sub-constructs of the scales. The results indicated that as individuals’ emotioncy level increases, the bias level decreases. In other words, involvement slides people toward being less judgmental and thus less biased in language, while exvolvement leads people toward using more abstract words, and therefore more biased language. In the end, implications of the findings were discussed in the realm of judgment and decision making.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Language and bias
    • 2.2Emotioncy
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instruments
      • 3.2.1Bias scale
      • 3.2.2Emotioncy scale
    • 3.3Procedure
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Descriptive Statistics and Correlations
    • 4.2The model proposed by SEM
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
References (54)
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