Political collective action requires assembling and motivating supporters. Many theories view emotions as functional tools for managing relationships, including within groups. We study what leads citizens to use the emotions anger and gratitude as social pressure. Specifically, we test what determines the use of these emotions to prevent potential exiters from leaving a political group and to encourage potential recruits to join. Because parties are enduring social affiliations (compared to transient or issue-focused groups), we predicted that partisans would express stronger emotions. We tested this proposition in two separate studies—one an observational study featuring a representative sample of US adults and one an experimental study conducted in Denmark. As predicted, people with a partisan mindset, whether naturally occurring or experimentally manipulated, felt more anger and gratitude at potential exiters and recruits. Citizens strive to fortify and expand their ingroups and sometimes use emotions as social pressure to do so.
BatsonCDBatsonJGSlingsbyJK, et al. (1991) Empathic joy and the empathy-altruism hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology61(3): 413–426.
2.
BolsenTDruckmanJNCookFL (2014) The influence of partisan motivated reasoning on public opinion. Political Behavior36(2): 235–262.
3.
BondRMFarissCJJonesJJ, et al. (2012) A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization. Nature489(7415): 295–298.
4.
BraderT (2006) Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
5.
CiminoADeltonAW (2010) On the perception of newcomers: toward an evolved psychology of intergenerational coalitions. Human Nature21(2): 186–202.
6.
CliffordS (2019) How emotional frames moralize and polarize political attitudes. Political Psychology40(1): 75–91.
7.
CosmidesLToobyJ (2000) Evolutionary psychology and the emotions. In: LewisMHaviland-JonesJM (eds) Handbook of Emotions. New York, NY: Guilford, pp. 91–115.
8.
CottrellCANeubergSL (2005) Different emotional reactions to different groups: a sociofunctional threat-based approach to ‘prejudice’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology88(5): 770–789.
9.
Del PonteADeltonAWDeScioliP (2021) Altruism and spite in politics: how the mind makes welfare tradeoffs about political parties. Political Behavior. Epub ahead of print 1 January. DOI: 10.1007/s11109-020-09660-z
10.
DeltonAWSellA (2014) The co-evolution of concepts and motivation. Current Directions in Psychological Science23(2): 115–120.
11.
DeltonAWPetersenMBDeScioliP, et al. (2018a) Need, compassion, and support for social welfare. Political Psychology39: 907–924.
12.
DeltonAWPetersenMBRobertsonTE (2018b) Partisan goals, emotions, and political mobilization: the role of motivated reasoning in pressuring others to vote. Journal of Politics80(3): 890–902.
13.
EkmanP (1992) An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion6(3–4): 169–200.
14.
ForsterDEPedersenEJSmithA, et al. (2017) Benefit valuation predicts gratitude. Evolution and Human Behavior38(1): 18–26.
15.
GerberASGreenDPLarimerCW (2008) Social pressure and voter turnout: evidence from a large-scale field experiment. American Political Science Review102(01): 33–48.
16.
GerberASHuberGADohertyD, et al. (2016) Why people vote: estimating the social returns to voting. British Journal of Political Science46(02): 241–264.
17.
GreenDPPalmquistBSchicklerE (2002) Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters. London: Yale University Press.
18.
GroenendykEWBanksAJ (2014) Emotional rescue: how affect helps partisans overcome collective action problems. Political Psychology35(3): 359–378.
19.
HerrnsonPSLayJCStokesAK (2003) Women running ‘as women’: candidate gender, campaign issues, and voter-targeting strategies. The Journal of Politics65(1): 244–255.
20.
HickenA (2011) Clientelism. Annual Review of Political Science14(1): 289–310.
21.
HirschmanAO (1970) Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
HuddyLMasonLAarøeL (2015) Expressive partisanship: campaign involvement, political emotion, and partisan identity. American Political Science Review109(1): 1–17.
23.
KeltnerDHaidtJ (2001) Social functions of emotions. In: MayneTJBonannoGA (eds) Emotions: Current Issues and Future Directions, Emotions and Social Behavior. New York, NY: Guilford Press, pp. 192–213.
24.
KlarSKrupnikovY (2016) Independent Politics: How American Disdain for Parties Leads to Political Inaction. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
25.
KnackS (1992) Civic norms, social sanctions, and voter turnout. Rationality and Society4(2): 133–156.
26.
LambertAJSchererLDSchottJP, et al. (2010) Rally effects, threat, and attitude change: an integrative approach to understanding the role of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology98(6): 886–903.
27.
LernerJSKeltnerD (2000) Beyond valence: toward a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice. Cognition and Emotion14(4): 473–493.
28.
LickelBHamiltonDLWieczorkowskaG, et al. (2000) Varieties of groups and the perception of group entitativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology78(2): 223–246.
29.
LimJ (2012) Welfare Tradeoff Ratios and Emotions: Psychological Foundations of Human Reciprocity. Doctoral dissertation. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California.
30.
LopezAC (2016) The evolution of war: theory and controversy. International Theory8(1): 97–139.
31.
MacKuenMMarcusGENeumanWR, et al. (2007) The third way: the theory of affective intelligence and American democracy. In: CriglerAN (ed), The Affect Effect: The Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 124–151.
32.
MacKuenMWolakJKeeleL, et al. (2010) Civic engagements: resolute partisanship or reflective deliberation. American Journal of Political Science54(2): 440–458.
33.
McCulloughMEKurzbanRTabakBA (2013) Cognitive systems for revenge and forgiveness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences36(1): 1–58.
34.
MarcusGENeumanWRMacKuenM (2000) Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
35.
MarcusGEValentinoNAVasilopoulosP, et al. (2019) Applying the theory of affective intelligence to support for authoritarian policies and parties. Political Psychology40(S1): 109–139.
36.
MasonL (2018) Uncivil Agreement: How Politics became Our Identity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
37.
MayerNDTormalaZL (2010) ‘Think’ versus ‘feel’ framing effects in persuasion. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin36(4): 443–454.
38.
MillarMGMillarKU (1990) Attitude change as a function of attitude type and argument type. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology59(2): 217–228.
39.
NeubergSLKenrickDTSchallerM (2011) Human threat management systems: self-protection and disease avoidance. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews35(4): 1042–1051.
40.
NeumanWRMarcusGECriglerAN, et al. (eds) (2007) The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
41.
NeumanWRMarcusGEMacKuenMB (2018) Hardwired for news: affective intelligence and political attention. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media62(4): 614–635.
42.
OlsonM (1965) The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
43.
PanagopoulosC (2010) Affect, social pressure and prosocial motivation: field experimental evidence of the mobilizing effects of pride, shame and publicizing voting behavior. Political Behavior32(3): 369–386.
44.
PanagopoulosC (2011) Thank you for voting: gratitude expression and voter mobilization. The Journal of Politics73(03): 707–717.
45.
PetersenMBSellAToobyJ, et al. (2012) To punish or repair? Evolutionary psychology and lay intuitions about modern criminal justice. Evolution and Human Behavior33(6): 682–695.
46.
RobertsonTESznycerDDeltonAW, et al. (2018) The true trigger of shame: social devaluation is sufficient, wrongdoing is unnecessary. Evolution and Human Behavior39(5): 566–573.
47.
SellA (2011) The recalibrational theory and violent anger. Aggression and Violent Behavior16(5): 381–389.
48.
SellASznycerDAl-ShawafL, et al. (2017) The grammar of anger: mapping the computational architecture of a recalibrational emotion. Cognition168: 110–128.
49.
SellAToobyJCosmidesL (2009) Formidability and the logic of human anger. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America106(35): 15073–15078.
50.
SmithAPedersenEJForsterDE, et al. (2017) Cooperation: the roles of interpersonal value and gratitude. Evolution and Human Behavior38(6): 695–703.
51.
SznycerD (2019) Forms and functions of the self-conscious emotions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences23(2): 143–157.
SznycerDAl-ShawafLBereby-MeyerY, et al. (2017) Cross-cultural regularities in the cognitive architecture of pride. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences114(8): 1874–1879.
54.
SznycerDSellADumontA (2021) How anger works. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Montreal, Canada.
55.
SznycerDTakemuraKDeltonAW, et al. (2012) Cross-cultural differences and similarities in proneness to shame: an adaptationist and ecological approach. Evolutionary Psychology10(2): 352–370.
56.
SznycerDToobyJCosmidesL, et al. (2016) Shame closely tracks the threat of devaluation by others, even across cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences113(10): 2625–2630.
57.
ToobyJCosmidesL (1990) The past explains the present: emotional adaptations and the structure of ancestral environments. Ethology and Sociobiology11(4–5): 375–424.
58.
ToobyJCosmidesLPriceME (2006) Cognitive adaptations for n-person exchange: the evolutionary roots of organizational behavior. Managerial and Decision Economics27(2–3): 103–129.
59.
ToobyJCosmidesLSellA, et al. (2008) Internal regulatory variables and the design of human motivation: a computational and evolutionary approach. In: ElliotAJ (ed), Handbook of Approach and Avoidance Motivation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 251–271.
60.
VasilopoulosP (2018) Terrorist events, emotional reactions, and political participation: the 2015 Paris attacks. West European Politics41(1): 102–127.
61.
VasilopoulosPMarcusGEFoucaultM (2018) Emotional responses to the Charlie Hebdo attacks: addressing the authoritarianism puzzle. Political Psychology39(3): 557–575.
62.
VasilopoulosPMarcusGEValentinoNA, et al. (2019) Fear, anger, and voting for the far right: evidence from the November 13, 2015 Paris terror attacks. Political Psychology40(4): 679–704.
63.
VasilopoulouSWagnerM (2017) Fear, anger and enthusiasm about the European Union: effects of emotional reactions on public preferences towards European integration. European Union Politics18(3): 382–405.
WilsonTDDunnDS (1986) Effects of introspection on attitude-behavior consistency: analyzing reasons versus focusing on feelings. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology22(3): 249–263.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
