Election campaigns and the cyclical nature of emotions—How politicians engage in affective polarization

Do politicians get emotional during an election campaign? We examine the existence of changes in partisan in-group favoritism and out-group hostility among political elites by evaluating degree to which they fluctuate before, after campaigns. The lack elite level panel data has prevented scholars from studying dynamics politicians' emotions around most emotionally intense event democracies: elections. focus on Sweden 2014 follow more than 700 Swedish a national campaign using unique three-wave survey. results reveal that towards other parties are affected election, but less so for their own party. Our study adds body recent evidence campaigns mobilize identities increase animus.