Åbo Akademi University: Emotions, Political Campaigns, and Participation: Insights from Facebook, Instagram, and Behavioral Economics

Description

Emotions are hot in political research. Facebook’s algorithm is accused of prioritizing angry content, and the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion has provoked both anxiety and happiness in the American public (depending on whether you are Pro-Choice or Pro-Life). In this lecture, I’ll provide a brief overview of how emotions affect political behavior. Then, I’ll present results from two recent studies of emotions and politics in the United States.

The first classifies the emotions expressed by politicians on Facebook and Instagram during the 2020 US election. The findings show that users react differently to emotions across the two platforms, and I’ll explain why this might be. The second study is a behavioral economics experiment that tests the effects of emotions on citizens’ political participation. We gave participants real money that they could either keep for themselves or spend to influence a large donation to an advocacy organization. The results show that when money is on the line, costs generally block the effect of emotions. However, issues and emotions can work together to override costs, which is a surprising finding since financial resources are one of the most powerful predictors of political participation.

The lecture will be of interest for students and scholars interested in social media analysis, emotions, political campaigning, and/or civic engagement.

Period	2022 Oct 4
Held at	Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Degree of Recognition	International