Beyond simple valence: Discrete emotions as mediators of political communication effects on trust in politicians

Abstract

Within this paper, the relationship between citizens’ emotional reactions to political reporting and their judgment of trust in politicians is investigated. Drawing on appraisal theories of emotion, this paper seeks to answer the question whether affect predicts trust judgments and which emotion plays what role. Findings of two media effects studies, one in the context of the 2013 German televised debate and in the context of the 2014 EU elections, supported the assumption that (1) emotions play a role over and above cognitive evaluations of politicians and (2) effects of affective states differ depending on the appraisal of the emotion. Emotions that can be characterized by other-control appraisals (anger) and no-control appraisals (happiness) do affect trust in politicians, while emotions with situational control appraisal (fear, sadness) or self-control appraisal (pride) do not have an effect. The studies confirm that emotions play a crucial role for subsequent trust judgment over and above evaluations of politicians and also support the idea that valence-based approaches are too simplistic to explain the relationship of emotions and trust judgments.