Brexit and the Everyday Politics of Emotion: Methodological Lessons from History

Moss, Jonathan; Robinson, Emily; Watts, Jake

doi:10.1177/0032321720911915

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…We analysed messages posted by the official party's Facebook profiles and pages of their leaders two months before and one month after the referendum. The Brexit debate had "strong emotional overtones" (Degerman, 2019, p. 829), and various scholars have emphasized the central role of emotion in Brexit (e.g., Degerman, 2019;Moss et al, 2020). Further, a number of researchers and commentators emphasize the importance of social media in this context (e.g., Brändle et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

All About Feelings? Emotional Appeals as Drivers of User Engagement With Facebook Posts

Bil-Jaruzelska

Monzer

2022

PaG

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Political campaigns routinely appeal to citizens’ emotions, and there is evidence that such appeals influence political behaviour. Social media, an important arena through which political actors communicate with voters, provide a rich source of data for investigating not only which communication strategies they use but also which of these engage followers. Building on political psychology and political communication literature, the present study investigates the relationship between appeals to specific emotions (fear, anger, enthusiasm, and pride) and the engagement that such posts generate on Facebook. We created an engagement index sensitive to the Facebook page follower count and employed multilevel modelling techniques. We conducted a manual content analysis of posts by British political parties and their leaders (<em>N</em> = 1,203) during the Brexit referendum debate on Facebook. We found that engagement with a post substantially increases when appeals to anger, enthusiasm, and pride are present. Conversely, there is no relationship between appeals to fear and engagement. Thus, the results indicate with observational data what we know about the effects of emotions from experimental research in political psychology. Emotions of the same valence (e.g., fear and anger) have a different relationship with user engagement and, by extension, political behaviour and participation online. This indicates that to fully understand the role of emotions in generating user engagement on Facebook, we must go beyond the positive and negative dichotomy and look at discrete emotions. Lastly, British political actors used Facebook communication to generate online political participation during the Brexit debate.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

All About Feelings? Emotional Appeals as Drivers of User Engagement With Facebook Posts

Bil-Jaruzelska

Monzer

2022

PaG

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“…Indeed, as Moss et al . (2020) showed, many British voters ended up relying on their ‘gut feeling’ (that is, their emotions) to position themselves on the Brexit issue. Whilst emotional investments do not automatically lead to politicization, as they must be strong enough to influence political choice, like in the case of Brexit their apparent presence serves as a wakeup call for re‐centring the study of why and how issues became politicized in the first place to explicitly include the emotive dimension of political behaviour.…”

Section: Politicizing the Eu And Taking Back (Emotional) Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling the Heat: Emotions, Politicization, and the European Union

Gellwitzki

Houde

2022

J of Common Market Studies

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For over a decade, scholars of European studies have been studying a phenomenon referred to as the politicization of the European Union, usually defined as the intensification of a political debate, the polarization of opinions, and public resonance. This article extends existing explanatory models by offering a systematic theorization of the role of emotions in EU politicization to establish that emotions are integral to every step of the process. First, they are prerequisites as actors and audiences need to be emotionally invested in an issue to engage in a debate about it. Second, they are drivers since they fuel debates and allow them to get heated and polarized. Third, they are outcomes since politicization will engender new emotional investments and sensitivities. The analytical added value of integrating emotions into explanatory models is illustrated through the case of the Brexit campaign.

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“…Like the Brexit rift in the UK (Cosslett, 2016), which split apart families and friends and produced stress and anxiety (Degerman, 2019; Moss et al , 2020), the social polarization exacerbated by political elites during this pandemic is dividing people, even within the same social class, into virtuous people and plague spreaders.…”

Section: Covid-19 Emotions and Feeling Rules Of Political Elitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How are emotions about COVID-19 impacting society? The role of the political elite and grassroots activism

Gravante

Poma

2021

IJSSP

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the role of emotions in the polarization that emerged during the first months of the pandemic. So, the authors will analyze the social response of two opposing social actors: political elites that have minimized the risks of the pandemic and grassroots groups that have promoted mutual support for vulnerable people suffering from the various effects of the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachFor the analysis, the authors will primarily refer to Hochschild's proposal and the recent literature on emotions and protest. The method is to analyze official statements by politicians from the UK, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Italy and the social responses that have emerged from different mutual support groups and solidarity networks in those countries, as well as in Chile and Argentina.FindingsThe authors will show how the conflicting responses can exacerbate social polarization in our societies. This polarization goes beyond the political spectrum, and in some cases even social classes, and reaches into the realms of values, emotions and practices. The authors will also show how the response from grassroots activism makes it possible to overcome guilt, shame and other emotions of trauma, among other things.Originality/valueAn analysis of the emotional dimension of two opposing responses to the pandemic will show how these responses have a deep impact on society, ranging from demands for values and practices that legitimize a status quo, to discussing, breaking away from or overcoming social behavior based on individualism and social determinism.

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Brexit and the Everyday Politics of Emotion: Methodological Lessons from History

Cited by 26 publications

References 44 publications

All About Feelings? Emotional Appeals as Drivers of User Engagement With Facebook Posts

All About Feelings? Emotional Appeals as Drivers of User Engagement With Facebook Posts

Feeling the Heat: Emotions, Politicization, and the European Union

How are emotions about COVID-19 impacting society? The role of the political elite and grassroots activism

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