How They Say It: Elite Emotional Cues and Support for Democratic Norms

• In Event: Democratic Norms among the Mass Public

Abstract

Analysis of contemporary elections in the United States often focuses on the differences in partisan information environments, asserting that information received influences the emotional and affective reactions of the electorate. In this analysis I widen the scope from information to the emotional context of partisan news to determine not only if copartisans are echoing the emotional projections of partisan news, but also how the effects of these emotional cues may be heterogenous when encountered by citizens on the opposite side of the political aisle. Using an experimental design, I expose partisans to news that conveys the host of the program as being either angry, anxious, or enthusiastic about American politics. Drawing on research in intergroup emotions, study one analyzes how exposure to partisan news results in differing emotional states among partisans, hypothesizing that partisans will echo the emotions of a copartisan anchor but will not generally mirror the emotions of an out-partisan host. Study two examines the consequences of these emotions with regards to support for political violence and democratic norms, considering whether these outcomes are impacted by exposure to the stimuli or if changes in the emotions of the respondents mediates this relationship. Similar to work on social polarization, I argue a person’s affective state causes changes their willingness to commit democratic harms, and that in addition to information emotional cues from elites are playing a role in this process.

Author

• Erin Cikanek, Cornell University