Rhetoric of Derisive Laughter in Political Debates on the EU

This article focuses on the argumentative role of derisive laughter in broadcast political debates. Using Discursive Psychology (DP) we analyze how politicians use derisive laughter as an argumentative resource in multiparty interactions, in the form of debates about the U.K. and the European Union....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Qualitative psychology (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2021-10, Vol.8 (3), p.328-342
Main Authors: Demasi, Mirko A., Tileagă, Cristian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Debates
Human
Ideology
Laughter
Politicians
Rhetoric
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Summary:This article focuses on the argumentative role of derisive laughter in broadcast political debates. Using Discursive Psychology (DP) we analyze how politicians use derisive laughter as an argumentative resource in multiparty interactions, in the form of debates about the U.K. and the European Union. Specifically, we explore how both pro- and anti-EU politicians use derisive laughter to manage issues of who-knows-what and who-knows-better. We demonstrate the uses of derisive laughter by focusing on 2 discrete, yet pervasive, interactional phenomena in our data-extended laughter sequences and snorts. We argue that in the context of political debates derisive laughter does more than signal trouble and communicate contempt; it is, more than often, mobilized in the service of ideological argumentation and used as a form of challenge to factual claims.
ISSN:2326-3601
2326-3598
2326-3598
2326-3601
DOI:10.1037/qup0000156