A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology proposed that people who use politically correct language are seen as less authentic and more easily persuaded, but also warmer.

Politically correct language is often used as an attempt to appear sensitive to other’s feelings, especially those who seem to be socially disadvantaged. An example of politically correct language is using the term “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” to avoid excluding people from non-Christian religious backgrounds.

In recent years, there has been a growing debate about the role of politically correct language in American discourse. While some people support the use of such language, others view it as an infringement on free speech. 

The researchers hypothesize that people who use politically correct language will be seen as (a) less authentic, which will lead to them being viewed as more easily persuaded and (b) warmer (more caring, tolerant and likeable). 

In addition, the researchers also suggested that opinions on politically correct language could be affected by political ideology. Specifically, when politically correct language is directed towards a certain group, liberals and conservatives will react differently, depending on whether they feel sympathy for that group.

The researchers designed several experiments to explore their hypotheses. In their first experiment, participants were presented with a written speech and asked to imagine a senator reading that speech to an audience. 

Half the participants read a speech about transgender policy, the other half read about immigration policy. Further, each speech consisted of either politically correct, or politically incorrect language. The following is a portion of the transgender policy statements used in the experiment:   

• The politically correct statement: “Of course I believe that LGBTQ persons are among the most vulnerable members of our society and we must do everything in our power to protect them.”

• The politically incorrect statement, “These people who call themselves LGBTQ are often profoundly disturbed and confused about their gender identity”. 

 The researchers found that there was a trade-off when using politically correct language. That is, participants who read speeches from senators who were politically correct viewed the senator as less authentic, but warmer. 

 These results were consistent, even when accounting for how much people reportedly liked/disliked politically correct language.

For the next experiment, the researchers selected three U.S. politicians: Congressman Steve King, Senator Jim Inhofe and Governor Jeb Bush. Participants were randomly assigned to read a short biography and watch a politically correct or politically incorrect speech by one of the three selected politicians. 

Based on their speeches, participants were asked to evaluate the politician and predict what position they would take on political issues in the future. The following is a portion of the statements used in the experiment:

• Governor Bush’s politically correct statement: “I was talking about a very narrow casted system of fraud where people are bringing pregnant women in to have babies to get birthright citizenship. I support birthright citizenship, by the way. I support it.”

• Governor Bush’s politically incorrect statement: “There’s abuse that people are bringing. Pregnant women are coming in to have babies simply because they can do it. There ought to be greater enforcement.”

The results of this experiment showed that participants who listened to a politically correct politician felt less certain about the politician’s future positions on political topics. The researchers suspect this may be due to the finding that people who use politically correct language are seen as more easily persuaded. 

Next, the researchers tested whether sympathy can affect how liberals and conservatives react to politically correct language. 

Based on a pretest, Liberal participants reported feeling the most sympathy for undocumented immigrants, the LGBTQ community and pro-choice individuals. Conservative participants reported feeling the most sympathy for religious Christians, poor White people and pro-life individuals. 

In this experiment, each participant read a statement directed at one of the six target groups such as, “I think it’s important for our country to have a national conversation about X group”. 

However, “X group” was replaced with either a politically correct term (e.g. undocumented immigrants) or a politically incorrect term (e.g. illegal aliens). 

The researchers found that in regard to a target group whom conservatives felt sympathy for (e.g. poor white people), statements that used politically incorrect language (e.g. white trash) were viewed as cold by conservatives. However, since liberals didn’t report feeling sympathy for this group, they viewed the use of this politically incorrect language as authentic.

Overall, the researchers found support for their hypothesis that the use of politically correct language can make people seem less authentic, more easily persuaded and warmer.  

When accounting for political ideology, while it’s assumed that liberal’s favour politically correct language over conservatives, that isn’t always the case. Politically correct language is viewed more favourably by both liberals and conservatives when it’s directed towards a group whom they feel sympathy towards.