Enhancement of Enemy’s Power Motivation as a Dynamic of Escalation in Conflict Situations
Author(s)
Winter, David
Abstract
In conflict situations, reports by favorable and opposed media sources of speeches and statements by key persons on each side show a systematic bias or distortion through selective quotation of motive-imagery content. The power motivation of the opposed side is accentuated and that of the favored side is diminished. This effect is found in media reports of both the 1960 and the 1980 presidential debates and also of the 1861 speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. In the latter case, also, affiliation-intimacy is distorted in the opposite way: the favored side is augmented and the opposed side is diminished. These effects are discussed as a possible dynamic of conflict escalation.
