Citizens' Affective, Cognitive and Behavioral Responses to the Emotional Displays of Politicians

When watching televised debates, seeing campaign posters on the street, while scrolling through social media, we are confronted with the persuasive communication of politicians. While most traditional political science research believes that people mostly focus on the words that politicians say, this dissertation shows that the (non-verbal) emotions expressed by politicians have several consequences on citizens’ affect, cognition, and behavior. One of the main findings of this dissertation, is that how the emotions of politicians affect citizens is strongly dependent on the political context. First, citizens respond differently to the emotions of politicians they support compared to politicians they would never vote for. This effect of political identification is so strong, that this bias can be detected in our physiology and brain activity, before it reaches our conscious awareness. Second, citizens respond differently to the emotions of female compared to male politicians. Although these gender differences are slowly fading, female politicians are still experiencing more disadvantages, especially when expressing anger. Third, this dissertation demonstrates that politicians’ happy expressions can have strong persuasive effects, whereas citizens strongly dislike angry politicians. Most importantly, the effect of these emotional displays of politicians goes beyond traditional vote choice predictors, such as issue importance or issue positions. Taken together, the emotions expressed by politicians and felt by citizens, play a crucial role in politics that should not be overlooked.