Emotions and populist communication Obsah obrázku Písmo, snímek obrazovky, Grafika, text Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Sára Cigánková 15.10.2024 Summary: populist communication style Populist communication style main features: ̶It reflects populist main ideological elements: anti-elitism, people centrism, exclusion of an out-group, Manichean perception of world, etc. ̶moral appeal, expressive wording, emotionality ̶Emphasis on the crisis, blaming others ̶ >> populist communication is “inherently emotional” << ̶ Are emotions important in political science? ̶Is the voter really rational? (Downs 1957 ) ̶Emotions as key player in decision making-process (Zajonc 1985, Damasio 1994) ̶Cognition is a complex process in which the affective and cognitive components cannot be clearly separated. ̶ ̶ Emotions and politics ̶Affective Intelligence Theory by George Marcus, Russell Neuman, and Michael MacKuen (2000): the disposition vs. surveillance system ̶Appraisal theory: each emotions have different “appraisal dimensions” that affect our behaviour (valence, certainty, responsibility and efficacy) (Lazarus 1991, Lerner, Keltner, 2000) ̶ ̶ ̶ Emotions and politics Emotions and political behaviour: ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶Different emotions have different effect on our political behaviour > emotions as influential tool in political campaigning ̶Brader (2006): political challengers use more fear appeals than incumbents, who tend rely more on enthusiasm. Why? ̶ ̶ ̶ Emotions and political behaviour: ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶Different emotions have different effect on our political behaviour > emotions as influential tool in political campaigning ̶Brader (2006): political challengers use more fear appeals than incumbents, who tend rely more on enthusiasm. ̶1) enthusiasm motivates participation and activates existing loyalties ̶2) fear stimulates vigilance, ncreases interest in new information, and facilitates persuasion (Brader 2005) ̶ ̶ ̶ Why are emotions important for populist parties? ̶ ̶ ̶ Trump's partially built 'big, beautiful wall' - POLITICO What is behind the success of populism? ̶ ̶ ̶ Trump's partially built 'big, beautiful wall' - POLITICO What is behind the success of populism? ̶Globalization and social-economic changes? ̶Immigration and cultural changes? ̶Unemployment? ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ Trump's partially built 'big, beautiful wall' - POLITICO What is behind the success of populism? ̶Globalization and social-economic changes? ̶Immigration and cultural changes? ̶Unemployment? ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ >> subjective „sense“ of perceptions of threat and vulnerability, identity loss ̶ ̶ ̶ Emotions and affect as key motivators to support populist movements ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ How? Populist political communication (in Wirz 2018) ̶Reference to the monolithic group of people ̶Stressing the people’s virtues and achievements ̶Demonstrating closeness to the people demanding sovereignty for the people Excluding and discrediting others ̶Blaming the elite ̶Denying sovereignty to the elite ̶Emphasis on the crisis ̶Emotions as ”secret ingredient” ̶ ̶ ̶ Erneuter Wirbel um AfD-Wahlplakate | International | Bote der Urschweiz Emotionalized political communication ̶attachment to local identities still play important role in political life ̶Intuitive work with emotions rather than with rational facts: ̶Emotions play a central role in the rhetoric of (right-wing) populist parties. ̶ P. appeal is far more urgent and attractive to voters precisely because of emotions such as anxiety, fear, desire, or hope (Solomon 2013) ̶ Impression of identification with the candidate or political party. ̶ ̶ ̶ Nationalism and Right-Wing Populism across Europe. A brief overview Emotionalized blame attribution (Hameleers et al., 2017, 2018) 7 Consequences of Blaming Others for How We Manage Anger | Psychology Today ̶ ̶ ̶ The populist communication, “emphasises agitation, spectacular acts, exaggeration, calculated provocations, and the intended breech of political and socio-cultural taboos” (Heinisch 2003,94) >> communication based on provocations, offensive language, aggressiveness, and negative emotionality Examples?? ̶ ̶ Fotogalerie: Zahájení horké fáze kampaně ODS před senátními a krajskými volbami Policie zahájila řízení proti kampani SPD, důvodem je „chirurg“ z dovozu - iDNES.cz SPD AI generated campaign Emotionality of populist communication ̶ ̶the instrumentalization of emotions in society by populists as one of the key driving mechanisms behind the success of populist political parties ̶populist parties use significantly more negative emotional appeals: anger, fear, disgust, sadness) ̶less positive emotional appeals (joy, enthusiasm, pride, hope) than mainstream parties ̶ populist campaigns are 15% more negative and contain 11% of more character attacks and 8% more fear messages than campaigns of non-populist candidates (Nai 2021) ̶ ̶ ̶ What emotions? With what effect? The Mystery of the Nation of Immigrants Who Fear Foreigners Negative emotions ̶populist parties use significantly more negative emotional appeals: anger and fear Populists are often outside of the political establishment; they identity and image is rooted in “anti-attitude”: ̶ ANGER and RESSENTMENT as emotion of protest moral disagreement and blame: anti-elitism and easy solutions Ex. After Parisian terror attacks anger was associated with voting for the French far-right party Front National (Vasilopoulos, Marcus, Valentino, et al. 2018) . ̶FEAR and ANXIETY: from information seeking and less tolerance to acceptance of conservative ideology: repressive politics, patriotism, increased support for the head of state, resistance to an "unconventional" lifestyle, and support for protectionist policies Ex: (The case of Parisien atacs) Fear significantly increase authoritarian policy preferences—yet, among left-wing individuals (Vasilopoulos, Marcus, & Foucault, 2018). + Anxiety has been found to cause conspiracy thinking about minorities and to make individuals more likely to search for, remember, and agree with threatening pieces of news about immigrant (Grzesiak-Feldman, 2013) ̶ The Mystery of the Nation of Immigrants Who Fear Foreigners Positive emotions ̶Populist as part of the “People”, protectors and saviors ̶Enthusiasm, joy, pride: emotions of certainty. ̶Associated to qualities of the people, nationalism or achievements of the candidate ̶ Hope: emotion oriented toward future. Connected to uncertainty > increasing interest in communicated issues ̶ Further literature •Widmann, Tobias. 2021. „How Emotional Are Populists Really? Factors Explaining Emotional Appeals in the Communication of Political Parties". Political Psychology 42 (1): 163–81. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/pops.12693 •Hameleers, Michael, Linda Bos, a Claes H. de Vreese. 2017. „“They Did It”: The Effects of Emotionalized Blame Attribution in Populist Communication". Communication Research 44 (6): 870–900. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0093650216644026 •Wodak, R. 2015. „The politics of fear: what right-wing populist discourses mean“. Los Angeles : SAGE Publication. • Weber, Christopher. 2013. „Emotions, Campaigns, and Political Participation". Political Research Quarterly 66 (2): 414–28. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23563153 •Vasilopoulos, Pavlos. 2017. „Terrorist events, emotional reactions, and political participation: the 2015 Paris attacks". West European Politics 41 (červenec): 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2017.1346901 • •