Politicians, activists and academics have long debated whether emotions mobilize citizen participation. Using novel measures of emotions based on pairs of open-ended and forced-choice questions, we examine how emotions expressed many months before an election predict voter turnout in the United States. We show that emotions concerning political stimuli can mobilize, but comparable emotions about other objects in the news have no potency.
About the presenter:
Eric Plutzer is Professor of Sociology and Political Science at Penn State, where he also directs the university's Graduate Certificate Program in Survey Methodology. He currently serves as co-editor of Public Opinion Quarterly. In addition to his work on voter turnout and the social bases of public opinion, he has a long-running research program on "controversial" science and health education in the US, focusing on the teaching of evolution, climate change, sexuality education and vaccines. With Michael Berkman, he is the author of Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle to Control America’s Classrooms (Cambridge) and Ten Thousand Democracies: Politics and Public Opinion in America's School Districts (Georgetown).
Read more about Professor Eric Plutzer here.
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