attitudethat

Attitudethat is a term used in discourse analysis to describe a type of communicative stance in which the primary function of a statement is to project a speaker's attitude rather than to advance substantive claims. In an attitudethat, the speaker emphasizes certainty, moral valuation, and personal conviction, treating the attitude itself as the message.

The term is a neologism that blends "attitude" with the demonstrative "that" to signal that the attitude is the focal point of the communication. It is used in studies of online speech, political rhetoric, and everyday conversation to categorize content where emotional signaling outweighs evidential argument.

Typical features include strong evaluative language, minimal or absent data, and absolutist phrasing. Attitudethats often aim to influence perception by signaling shared values or moral alignment. They can enhance perceived credibility for some audiences while reducing trust for others and potentially narrowing the space for debate.

Examples include posts that declare, "This policy is wrong, and anyone who disagrees is ignorant," or statements that foreground certainty over evidence without explaining reasons. In analysis, these utterances are examined for linguistic cues such as lack of hedging, strong modalities, and moral judgments.

Relation to related concepts includes stance-taking, performativity, and affective polarization. Critics argue that attitudethats can substitute for reasoning and hinder constructive dialogue, while proponents see them as efficient signals of alignment in large, noisy discussions.