Political emotions and digital political mobilization in the new populist parties: the cases of Podemos and Vox in Spain

Iglesias, Roberto L. Barbeito; Alonso, Angel Iglesias

doi:10.1080/03906701.2021.1947948

Cited by 18 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Thus, the more sympathetic approach to political storytelling may strengthen the legitimisation of democracies and prevent the proliferation of populist narratives of ressentiment, which challenge promoted collective identities (Marszałek-Kawa & Wawrzyński, 2016). Compassion seems more efficient in regulating emotional responses to political action, transforming negativity into caring, advancing civic education (Wawrzyński & Marszałek-Kawa, 2018, p. 107), and preventing it from populist dependency on high arousal performance (Barbeito Iglesias & Iglesias Alonso, 2021;Rico et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional Dynamics of Populism and Its Non-Populist Alternatives: Discussing the Role of Compassion and Pride

Wawrzyński¹,

Marszałek–Kawa²

2022

PPSY

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The paper discusses populist appeals to emotions in political communication, considering their role in the proliferation of political polarisation and radicalisation. Revisiting the Emotional Rescue Model of anger, enthusiasm, and fear, we considered pride and compassion low-arousal alternatives to populist storytelling. In the experiments, we tested how participants (n=364) respond to appeals to pride and compassion in their brain activity, emotional expressions, prosocial behaviour, attitude change, and memorisation. In the paper, we primarily discussed the results of the fMRI (neuroimaging) study and compared them with the previous studies on authentic pride, compassion, empathy, and reappraisal. Considering similarities in the activation of the superior and middle temporal gyri, temporal pole, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, we argue that compassionate political narratives should be the most effective low-arousal alternative to populist storytelling. Moreover, stimulation of the reappraisal-related network in that group suggests that participants reframed emotional negativity into prosocial acts of caring and helping, also re-evaluating their attitudes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional Dynamics of Populism and Its Non-Populist Alternatives: Discussing the Role of Compassion and Pride

Wawrzyński¹,

Marszałek–Kawa²

2022

PPSY

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“…In the Spanish case, we have an example of this populist approach, with VOX on the far right (Aladro Vico & Requeijo Rey, 2020) and Podemos on the left (Casero-Ripollés et al, 2017). To identify key characteristics of presentation that may be associated with populist communications, some authors focus on stylistic elements such as emotionality or negativity (Barbeito Iglesias & Iglesias Alonso, 2021;Schmuck & Hameleers, 2020), while others point to the substantial content such as people-centrism, anti-elitism and the exclusion of out-groups (de Vreese et al, 2018;Lilleker et al, 2022;Reinemann et al, 2016). In this study, we rely on the latter option, which focuses on what is expressed in populist political communications and analyses the use of these three core elements of populism in the discourse of the parties.…”

Section: Populism and Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Political communication on Facebook and populism. The 2019 European Parliament election in Spain

Fenoll

2022

Communication & Society

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Populist actors have more success than other parties on social media –particularly Facebook– where their posts receive higher levels of engagement. The entry of populist parties onto the Spanish political stage can spread the use of their rhetoric and influence citizens’ political decisions, affecting the configuration of supranational institutions such as the European Union. The aim of this study is to use a quantitative content analysis to verify the presence of populist discourse in the 844 messages published on Facebook by Spanish parties during the 2019 European Parliament election campaign and to analyse their impact on user interaction. The results show that the newest and most extremist parties monopolise the messages with empty, anti-elite populism. However, the use of exclusionary populist discourse is also detected in more moderate conservative parties. Populist parties, especially VOX, lead user interactions, irrespective of whether the populist style appears in the messages. The results of the research show that the populist style is inexorably consolidating in Europe as an electoral communications strategy on Facebook. As with other European countries, extremist and opposition parties also adopt the populist style as a communications strategy. The results suggest that the success of populist actors on social media may be conditioned by the populist attitudes of their followers and less by the characteristics of these parties’ publications.

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“…These politicians choose divisive issues to highlight in order to pursue their own political agenda. They might exploit real grievances and anxieties about unemployment or crime, or they may even manufacture a threat, such as Donald Trump calling Central American refugees an invading army (Barbieto, 2021). In extreme polarization, people feel distant from and suspicious of the other camp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Contributing to Extreme Polarization of the Society in South Africa

Madjozi

2023

IJS

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Purpose: The study sought to analyze the factors contributing to extreme polarization of the society in South Africa Methodology: The study adopted a desktop methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The results show that polarization is strongly path dependent and sensitive to stochastic variation. Second, polarization depends strongly on the initial distribution of opinions in the population. In the absence of extremists, polarization may be mitigated. Noisy communication can drive a population toward more extreme opinions and even cause acute polarization. Finally, the apparent reduction in polarization under increased cultural complexity arises via a particular property of the polarization measurement, under which a population containing a wider diversity of extreme views is deemed less polarized. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The social comparison theory and Robert Tallisie theory may be used to anchor future studies in the political sector. The study results will also benefit other stakeholders such as the policy makers as well as researchers and scholars from different parts of the world. The top management of politics in the country will also use the study findings to improve the society and ensure high and stable performance in all their activities and programs. The study recommends that the adoption of effective social protection development policies in the society will help to improve efficiency in their major operations and activities. This work has implications for understanding the population dynamics of beliefs opinions and polarization as well as broader implications for the analysis of agent-based models of social phenomena.

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Political emotions and digital political mobilization in the new populist parties: the cases of Podemos and Vox in Spain

Cited by 18 publications

References 32 publications

Emotional Dynamics of Populism and Its Non-Populist Alternatives: Discussing the Role of Compassion and Pride

Emotional Dynamics of Populism and Its Non-Populist Alternatives: Discussing the Role of Compassion and Pride

Political communication on Facebook and populism. The 2019 European Parliament election in Spain

Factors Contributing to Extreme Polarization of the Society in South Africa

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