Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Nowak, Andrzej

Thesis/Dissertation Co-Chair

Vallacher, Robin

Abstract

We collected approximately 60 million tweets over a 6-month period during the 2020 presidential election, starting from the conventions through the inauguration. Each tweet referenced either the Republican incumbent Donald Trump or the Democrat challenger Joe Biden. The tweets were analyzed for sentiment and the frequency of the moral foundations using the standard LIWC2015 dictionary and the Moral Foundations Dictionary 2.0. We found that the tweets had an overall negative sentiment for both candidates, with tweets referencing Trump being more negative than tweets about Biden. Additional analyses showed that the Authority (Virtue) and Loyalty (Virtue) were the most frequently used moral foundations. This study provides an overview into social media discussions during a heated election cycle that ultimately culminated in the Jan. 6th Insurrection and the second impeachment of Donald Trump.

Extent

94 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2022.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00013954

Format

pdf

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