It ’ s My Campaign I ’ ll Cry if I Want to : How and When Campaigns Use Emotional Appeals

Recent research in the arena of campaign advertising suggests that emotional appeals can influence political attitudes, electoral choices and decision-making processes (Brader 2006; Marcus, Neuman and MacKuen 2000; Redlawsk, Civettini and Lau 2007). Yet is there any evidence that candidates use emotional appeals strategically during campaigns? Is there a pattern to their use? For instance, are fear appeals used primarily late in the campaign by trailing candidates in order to get voters to rethink their choices? And are enthusiasm appeals more common early on in order to shore up a candidate’s base? In this research we develop a theory that explains when candidates use certain emotional appeals (e.g., anger, enthusiasm, fear and compassion) and which types of candidates are most likely to do so. We then test these ideas using campaign advertising data from several U.S. Senate races from 2004. Our research thus provides a link between research on campaign decision-making—here the decision to “go emotional”—and research focusing on the effects of emotional appeals on voters. This paper was prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Vancouver, British Columbia, March 19-21, 2009.