full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Robb Willer: How to have better political conversations

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So we conducted a study where we recruited liberals to a study where they were supposed to write a persuasive essay that would be compelling to a ctnrvesavoie in support of same-sex miragrae. And what we found was that liberals tdeend to make arguments in tmers of the lareibl moral values of euatiqly and fairness. So they said things like, "Everyone should have the right to love whoever they choose," and, "They" — they being gay Americans — "deserve the same equal rights as other Americans." Overall, we found that 69 percent of liberals invoked one of the more liberal moral values in constructing their essay, and only nine percent invoked one of the more conservative moral values, even though they were supposed to be trying to persuade conservatives. And when we stdeiud conservatives and had them make psrsuveiae arguments in support of making English the official language of the US, a classically conservative political position, we found that they weren't much better at this. 59 percent of them made arguments in terms of one of the more conservative moarl values, and just eight percent invoked a liberal moral value, even though they were supposed to be targeting liberals for persuasion.

Open Cloze


So we conducted a study where we recruited liberals to a study where they were supposed to write a persuasive essay that would be compelling to a ____________ in support of same-sex ________. And what we found was that liberals ______ to make arguments in _____ of the _______ moral values of ________ and fairness. So they said things like, "Everyone should have the right to love whoever they choose," and, "They" — they being gay Americans — "deserve the same equal rights as other Americans." Overall, we found that 69 percent of liberals invoked one of the more liberal moral values in constructing their essay, and only nine percent invoked one of the more conservative moral values, even though they were supposed to be trying to persuade conservatives. And when we _______ conservatives and had them make __________ arguments in support of making English the official language of the US, a classically conservative political position, we found that they weren't much better at this. 59 percent of them made arguments in terms of one of the more conservative _____ values, and just eight percent invoked a liberal moral value, even though they were supposed to be targeting liberals for persuasion.

Solution


  1. moral
  2. tended
  3. terms
  4. marriage
  5. conservative
  6. studied
  7. equality
  8. persuasive
  9. liberal

Original Text


So we conducted a study where we recruited liberals to a study where they were supposed to write a persuasive essay that would be compelling to a conservative in support of same-sex marriage. And what we found was that liberals tended to make arguments in terms of the liberal moral values of equality and fairness. So they said things like, "Everyone should have the right to love whoever they choose," and, "They" — they being gay Americans — "deserve the same equal rights as other Americans." Overall, we found that 69 percent of liberals invoked one of the more liberal moral values in constructing their essay, and only nine percent invoked one of the more conservative moral values, even though they were supposed to be trying to persuade conservatives. And when we studied conservatives and had them make persuasive arguments in support of making English the official language of the US, a classically conservative political position, we found that they weren't much better at this. 59 percent of them made arguments in terms of one of the more conservative moral values, and just eight percent invoked a liberal moral value, even though they were supposed to be targeting liberals for persuasion.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
moral purity 5
zombie apocalypse 4
liberal moral 4
moral values 4
apocalypse movie 3
moral divide 2
conservatives tend 2
endorse values 2
recruited liberals 2
percent invoked 2
conservative moral 2
making english 2
official language 2
environmental attitudes 2
environmental protection 2
purity essay 2
global warming 2
political issues 2
conservative policy 2
policy issues 2
buddy cop 2
cop movie 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
zombie apocalypse movie 3
liberal moral values 3
moral purity essay 2
conservative policy issues 2
buddy cop movie 2

Important Words


  1. americans
  2. arguments
  3. choose
  4. classically
  5. compelling
  6. conducted
  7. conservative
  8. conservatives
  9. constructing
  10. english
  11. equal
  12. equality
  13. essay
  14. fairness
  15. gay
  16. invoked
  17. language
  18. liberal
  19. liberals
  20. love
  21. making
  22. marriage
  23. moral
  24. official
  25. percent
  26. persuade
  27. persuasion
  28. persuasive
  29. political
  30. position
  31. recruited
  32. rights
  33. studied
  34. study
  35. support
  36. supposed
  37. targeting
  38. tended
  39. terms
  40. values
  41. write