Argumentation meets adapted cognition : manipulation in media discourse on immigration

Hart, Christopher (2013) Argumentation meets adapted cognition : manipulation in media discourse on immigration. Journal of Pragmatics, 59 (Part B). pp. 200-209. ISSN 0378-2166

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Abstract

Critical discourse analysis has focussed extensively on argumentation in anti-immigration discourse where a specific suite of argumentation strategies has been identified as constitutive of the discourse. The successful perlocutionary effects of these arguments are analysed as products of pragmatic processes based on ‘common-sense' reasoning schemes known as topoi. In this paper, I offer an alternative explanation grounded in cognitive-evolutionary psychology. Specifically, it is shown that a number of argumentation schemes identified as recurrent in anti-immigration discourse relate to two cognitive mechanisms proposed in evolutionary psychology: the cheater detection and avoidance mechanism (Cosmides 1989) and epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al. 2010). It is further suggested that the potential perlocutionary effects of argument acts in anti-immigration discourse, in achieving sanction for discriminatory practices, may arise not as the product of intentional-inferential processes but as a function of cognitive heuristics and biases provided by these mechanisms. The impact of such arguments may therefore be best characterised in terms of manipulation rather than persuasion.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Pragmatics
Additional Information:
The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Journal of Pragmatics 59 (Part B), 2013, © ELSEVIER.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1700/1702
Subjects:
?? critical discourse analysiscognitive heuristicsimmigration discourseargumentationmanipulationheuristics and biasesartificial intelligencelinguistics and languagelanguage and linguistics ??
ID Code:
65842
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
05 Aug 2013 09:56
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
08 Oct 2024 00:06