Says who? The role of party cues in explaining the positive and negative consequences of political moral appeals in western Europe

Literature focusing on the impact of moral rhetoric suggests that the moral justification of a party position can convince and polarize voters. Thus far existing work pays little attention to the role of partisan sources in explaining these effects. This study looks at the interaction between moral rhetoric and party cues in three Western European multiparty systems: Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. Making use of two studies, combining automated content analyses (170,786 manifesto statements), election surveys ( n = 17,140) and a survey experiment ( n = 1125) I find that that moral appeals can have positive as well as negative effects, many of which are dependent upon the source of the appeal. Ideological proximity turns out to be a more relevant moderator than partisanship.