Stories, emotions, and governmental strategies

Abstract

When writing this introduction, we just returned home from the second edition of the Conference on Policy Process Research (COPPR), which took place and was organized at the Center for Policy Design and Governance of the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse, USA. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the organizing team, particularly Saba Siddiki, Davor Mondom, Chris Weible, and Allegra Fullerton, for making this great conference happen. It was a pleasure for us to participate, to connect with old and new friends, and to exchange on policy process research.Throughout the panels at COPPR, one of the themes emerging as increasingly relevant is the role of emotions and stories in policy processes and governmental strategies: The increased polarization in recent years is connected at least in part to the emotionalization of policy conflicts (Verhoeven & Metze, 2022). Existing studies have shown that negative emotions, such as anger and fear, are powerful in shaping individual opinions about certain policies (Hornung