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MORES

Moral Emotions in Politics – how they unite, how they divide

  • Description
  • Timeframe
  • What does ECAS do?

Objectives

MORES will study how moral emotions, especially positive ones, contribute to the stabilisation of political identities, and how they, especially negative ones, trigger division and polarisation.

MORES aims to better understand the political role of moral emotions in order to develop a normative-analytical framework to inform democratic decision-making on how moral emotions should interact with values, policies and political practises; how can their unifying potential realised and their divisive power is limited; how should the extremes of either under- or over- emotionalisation of politics be avoided; and what kind of practical tools as well as policy recommendations can enhance emotional regulation in politics and integrate citizens’ emotional needs into policymaking.

The project consortium is led by the Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary and includes, in addition to ECAS, the following partners:

January 2024 – December 2026

  • Crowdsource citizens’ opinions on the role of emotions in politics in the second half of 2024.
  • Conduct a focus group on the moral-emotional effects of messages on European identity will be conducted in Bulgaria.
  • Organise a Summer Academy in Bulgaria in 2026 for training stakeholders on promoting European valuesmaster class on moral emotions and political identities with representatives of NGOs, academia, policymaking, think tanks and media will be target groups.
  • Develop policy recommendations on how to make policies that better integrate the emotional needs of citizens and boost trust in governance and represent European values.
  • Carry out dissemination at the EU level through direct EU advocacy and a final project policy workshop webinar in Brussels.