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Intentionality Framing in Political Rhetoric About Immigration: A Longitudinal Analysis of U.S. Congressional Speech (1880–2020)

This seminar session will be presented by Amine Sijilmassi and Lou Safra. They will present a computational analysis of the evolution of intentional framing in US Congressional discourse on immigration (1880–2020).

Event, Research Seminar

Salle K.011, 1 place Saint Thomas d'Aquin 75007 Paris

Abstract

Research in social cognition suggests that intentions play a fundamental role in moral judgements. This study leverages computational text analysis of over 250,000 U.S. congressional speeches from 1880 to 2020 to examine the evolution of intentionality framing—rhetoric focusing on immigrants' motives, desires, and goals. Using GPT-4 to identify intentionality cues, we find a significant increase in intentionality framing since the mid-20th century, coinciding with growing polarization between Democrats and Republicans. Crucially, pro-immigration discourse increasingly emphasizes positive intentions, while anti-immigration rhetoric has become more behaviorist, focusing on external impacts rather than internal states. This rhetorical divergence intensifies during periods of heightened political polarization. Our findings highlight how political actors strategically mobilize psychological intuitions about intent to mobilize voter support and underscore the role of perceived intentionality in shaping social and moral evaluations of immigrant groups.

Biography

Amine Sijilmassi holds a PhD in social cognition from the Institut Jean Nicod (École Normale Supérieure) and CEVIPOF (Sciences Po Paris). His research integrates cognitive and behavioral sciences with political science to investigate the foundations of group identity and political behavior, using surveys, experiments, and computational text analysis.

Lou Safra holds a PhD in Cognitive Science from the École Normale Supérieure (Paris, 2017). She is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Psychology at CEVIPOF–Sciences Po and an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Studies (Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory & Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, ENS Paris). Her research examines the cognitive mechanisms underlying social and political behaviour, especially leader choice and cooperation. She adopts an ecological and evolutionary perspective to understand individual differences across space and time, drawing on behavioural data, social surveys, computational modelling, and, more recently, the analysis of cultural artefacts such as paintings and books.

Practical informations

This seminar will be held in person and in English, on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, in Room K.011, 1 Place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris.

Registration is mandatory via this link.