Fear-anger contests: Governmental and populist politics of emotion
Joerg Friedrichs, University of Oxford
Niklas Stoehr, ETH Zurich
Giuliano Formisano, University of Oxford
Journal of Online Social Networks and Media
This article explores how political actors use the emotions of fear and anger in what we call fear-anger contests. Our theory distinguishes between governmental and populist actors and posits that, in a contest for media attention and the hearts and minds of citizens, populists pursue a politics of anger whereas governmental actors pursue a politics of fear. To evaluate the theory, we examine two episodes of contentious politics: the 2016 Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in the same year. We rely on automated sentiment analysis, using machine learning and emotion dictionaries to examine a dataset of social media posts on Twitter. In the case of Brexit, we find a fear-anger contest between Remain (“Project Fear”) and Leave (“Project Anger”). In the case of the 2016 US presidential election, we find a negativity contest where both parties reinforce each other's negative emotions.
Fear-anger contests: Governmental and populist politics of emotion
Joerg Friedrichs, University of Oxford
Niklas Stoehr, ETH Zurich
Giuliano Formisano, University of Oxford
Journal of Online Social Networks and Media
This article explores how political actors use the emotions of fear and anger in what we call fear-anger contests. Our theory distinguishes between governmental and populist actors and posits that, in a contest for media attention and the hearts and minds of citizens, populists pursue a politics of anger whereas governmental actors pursue a politics of fear. To evaluate the theory, we examine two episodes of contentious politics: the 2016 Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in the same year. We rely on automated sentiment analysis, using machine learning and emotion dictionaries to examine a dataset of social media posts on Twitter. In the case of Brexit, we find a fear-anger contest between Remain (“Project Fear”) and Leave (“Project Anger”). In the case of the 2016 US presidential election, we find a negativity contest where both parties reinforce each other's negative emotions.