MAPPING EMOTIONAL RESPONSES ACROSS THE INDIVIDUAL MORAL SYSTEM IN SOCIAL NETWORK ETHICAL PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Social networks are meant to be environments of interconnection, but nowadays are emo-tionally charged and fuelled by polarizing dynamics, particularly on ethical issues. What appear to be overlooked are the moral motivational systems that can moderate emotional responses prompted by the communicative online content. Based on the individual Moral Foundations, namely Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity (Graham et al., 2008), this quasi-experimental study aims to understand how certain online public messages structured through different moral framings affect distinct emotions. We explored with a sample of adult participants (N=306, F=58.5%) the different emotional responses after the presentation of posts on immigrants' reception in Italy, simulating interactions in an online context through three different framings: the first focused on the safety, the second on the relevance of help, and a neutral message. The results confirm distinct emotional responses according to different frames and within individual moral systems and political orientation. Keywords: Toxic emotions, prosocial emotions, Moral Frame, Social Networks, Ethical Com-munication, Moral Foundations.