Archival content analysis may measure rhetorical style rather than actual cognition

Evidence

Public policy statements may shed more light on how senators seek to influence other political actors (colleagues, the executive branch of government, the press, special interest groups) than on how senators actually think about policy issues. In short, conservatives may differ from liberals and moderates in rhetorical style, not cognitive style. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2286

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: the MOC “The Word Is a Fence: Language as Battleground, Property, and Partition”