Forms of Expression of Angry Voters and Sad Voters: The Effects of Discrete Emotions and Emotional Expression on the Voting Participation through Approach-Avoidance Action Tendencies

Abstract

Despite the proliferation of studies on emotion, little attention has been paid to the effects of discrete emotion on political participation. Using a representative survey conducted on a sample of South Korean citizens in the aftermath of the Sewol ferry accident, the current survey explored how anger and sadness, as well as the ways people express those emotions, influence the orientation of their response in social environments and, ultimately, their voting intention. The results partially supported the discrete effects of sadness and anger in eliciting reactions of approach or avoidance. Anger was found to provoke an approach action tendency in independent voters and supporters of the opposition, while also eliciting an avoidance action tendency with a varying effect size across all three groups of respondents. Sadness also prompted an approach action tendency in independents and supporters of the incumbent party, while it manifested a negative association with the avoidance action tendency in supporters of the opponent party. An interpretation of the findings and proposed directions for future research are presented.

Keywords

• emotion
• anger and sadness
• emotional expression
• approach and avoidance
• fight or flight
• voting intention