The role that emotions play in shaping mass political behavior is increasingly well researched. This study refocuses the debate to explore the effect that the emotions expressed by candidates (target affect) through new media have on participation, rather than the effect of emotions felt by voters (observer affect). A unique experiment embedded in a nationally representative online survey demonstrates that appeals invoking target affect can strongly increase citizens’ political participation both online and offline. Contrary to fears that the use of emotions by political elites will agitate the least knowledgeable citizens, however, the results demonstrate that it is the most politically-engaged citizens who are mobilized by such appeals. These findings have significant implications for our understanding of the participatory consequences of emotional political messages on the Internet.
AdlerRPGogginJ (2005) What do we mean by ‘civic engagement’?Journal of Transformative Education3(3): 236–253.
2.
BerenbaumHFujitaFPfenningJ (1995) Consistency, specificity, and correlates of negative emotions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology68(2): 342–352.
3.
BohanC (2008) Obama: campaigning with a message of hope. Reuters, 23April. Available at: http://uk.reuters.com.
4.
BraderTValentinoNA (2007) Identities, interests, and emotions: symbolic versus material wellsprings of fear, anger, and enthusiasm. In: NeumanWRMarcusGECriglerAN. (eds) The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 180–201.
5.
CapelosT (2010) Feeling the issue: how citizens’ affective reactions and leadership perceptions shape policy evaluations. Journal of Political Marketing9(1): 9–33.
6.
ChaffeeSHSchleuderJ (1986) Measurement and effects of attention to media news. Human Communication Research13: 76–107.
DunhamRSRatcliffeRG (2010) Anger and anxiety fuel high election stakes. Houston Chronicle, 31October. Available at: www.chron.com.
9.
EaglyAHChaikenS (1993) Psychology of Attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
10.
Fox News (2010) Invoking tea party anger, thousands rally in D.C. in support of Dems’ agenda. Fox News, 2October. Available at: www.foxnews.com.
11.
FriedmanE (2008) Can Clinton’s emotions get the best of her?ABC News, 7January. Available at: http://abcnews.go.com.
12.
GlaserJSaloveyP (1998) Affect in electoral politics. Personality and Social Psychology Review2(3): 156–172.
13.
GraberDA (2001) Processing Politics: Learning from Television in the Internet Age. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
14.
GumpBBKulikJA (1997) Stress, affiliation, and emotional contagion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology72(2): 305–319.
15.
HillyerQ (2008) Angry old man. The American Spectator, 3January. Available at: http://spectator.org/.
16.
HoffmanLH (2012) Participation or communication? An explication of political activity in the Internet age. Journal of Information Technology & Politics. 9(3): 217–233.
17.
HovlandCIJanisILKelleyHH (1953) Communication and Persuasion: Psychological Studies of Opinion Change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
18.
HseeCKHatfieldECarlsonJG (1990) The effect of power on susceptibility to emotional contagion. Cognition & Emotion4: 327–340.
19.
HuddyLFeldmanSCasseseE (2007) On the distinct political effects of anxiety and anger. In: NeumanWRMarcusGECriglerAN. (eds) The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 202–230.
20.
IsbellLMOttatiVCBurnsKC (2006) Affect and politics: effects on judgment, processing, and information seeking. In: RedlawskDP (ed.) Feeling Politics; Emotion in Political Information Processing. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 57–86.
21.
JohnsonP (2009) What knowledge is of most worth? In: BorgidaEFedericoCMSullivanJL (eds) The Political Psychology of Citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 52–72.
22.
JustMRCriglerANBeltTL (2007) Don’t give up hope: emotions, candidate appraisals, and votes. In: NeumanWRMarcusGECriglerAN. (eds) The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 231–260.
23.
KaidLLJohnstonA (2001) Videostyle in Presidential Campaigns. Westport, CT: Praeger.
24.
KernM (1989) 30 Second Politics: Political Advertising in the Eighties. Westport, CT: Praeger.
25.
KingGTomzMWittenbergJ (2000) Making the most of statistical analyses: improving interpretation and presentation. American Journal of Political Science44: 341–355.
26.
KwakNWilliamsAWangX. (2005) Talking politics and engaging politics: an examination of the interactive relationships between structural features of political talk and discussion engagement. Communication Research32: 87–111.
27.
LernerJSKeltnerD (2000) Beyond valence: toward a model of emotion-specific influence on judgment and choice. Cognition & Emotion14(4): 473–493.
28.
LernerJSKeltnerD (2001) Fear, anger, and risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology81(1): 146–159.
29.
LeventhalH (1970) Findings and theory in the study of fear communications. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology5: 119–186.
30.
LevineRV (2003) The Power of Persuasion: How We’re Bought and Sold. New York, NY: Wiley.
31.
MacKuenMMarcusGENeumanWR. (2007) The third way: the theory of affective intelligence and American democracy. In: NeumanWRMarcusGECriglerAN. (eds) The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 124–151.
32.
MacKuenMWolakJKeeleL. (2010) Civic engagements: resolute partisanship or reflective deliberation. American Journal of Political Science54(2): 440–458.
33.
MarcusGE (2000) Emotions in politics. Annual Review of Political Science3(1): 221–250.
34.
MarcusGE (2002) The Sentimental Citizen: Emotion in Democratic Politics. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
35.
MarcusGEMacKuenMWolakJ. (2006) The measure and mismeasure of emotion. In: RedlawskDP (ed.) Feeling Politics: Emotion in Political Information Processing, vol. 40. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 31–45.
36.
MarcusGENeumanWRMacKuenM (eds) (2000) Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
37.
MastersRDSullivanDG (1989) Nonverbal displays and political leadership in France and the United States. Political Behavior11(2): 123–156.
38.
McHugoGJLanzettaJTSullivanDG. (1985) Emotional reactions to a political leader’s expressive displays. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology49(6): 1513–1529.
39.
MillerPR (2011) The emotional citizen: emotion as a function of political sophistication. Political Psychology32(4): 575–600.
40.
NabiRL (1999) A cognitive-functional model for the effects of discrete negative emotions on information processing, attitude change, and recall. Communication Theory9(3): 292–320.
41.
OttatiVTerkildsenNHubbardC (1997) Happy faces elicit heuristic processing in a televised impression formation task: a cognitive tuning account. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin23: 1144–1156.
42.
PettyRECacioppoJT (1981) Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
43.
RahnWMHirshornRM (1999) Political advertising and public mood: a study of children’s political orientations. Political Communication16: 387–407.
44.
RedlawskDPCivettiniAJWLauRR (2007) Affective intelligence and voting: information processing and learning in a campaign. In: NeumanWRMarcusGECriglerAN. (eds) The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 152–179.
45.
RidoutTNSearlesK (2011) It’s my campaign I’ll cry if I want to: how and when campaigns use emotional appeals. Political Psychology32(3): 439–458.
46.
RogersRW (1975) A protection motivation theory of fear appeals and attitude change. Journal of Psychology91: 93–114.
47.
RudolphTJGanglAStevensD (2000) The effects of efficacy and emotions on campaign involvement. Journal of Politics62(4): 1189–1197.
48.
SchwarzN (2002) Feelings as information: moods influence judgments and processing strategies. In: GilovichTGriffinDKahnemanD (eds) Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 534–547.
49.
SchwarzNCloreGL (1983) Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: informative and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology45(3): 513–523.
50.
SullivanDGMastersRD (1988) Happy warriors: leaders’ facial displays, viewers’ emotions, and political support. American Journal of Political Science32(2): 345–368.
51.
VaccariC (2008) From the air to the ground: the Internet in the 2004 US presidential campaign. New Media & Society10(4): 647–665.
52.
ValentinoNABanksAJHutchingsVL. (2009) Selective exposure in the Internet age: the interaction between anxiety and information utility. Political Psychology30(4): 591–613.
53.
ValentinoNABraderTGroenendykEW. (2011) Election night’s alright for fighting: the role of emotions in political participation. Journal of Politics73(1): 156–170.
54.
VerbaSSchlozmanKLBradyHE (1995) Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
55.
WayBMMastersRD (1996) Political attitudes: interactions of cognition and affect. Motivation and Emotion20(3): 205–236.
56.
WeberC (2007) Exploring the role of discrete emotions in political campaigns. In: Paper prepared for the 2007 American Political Science Association annual meeting, Chicago, IL, 30 August–2 September.
57.
ZallerJ (1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cambridge, UK.
58.
ZukinCKeeterSAndolinaM. (2006) A New Engagement?: Political Participation, Civic Life, and the Changing American Citizen. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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.
