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

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.