The Wrath of Candidates. Drivers of Fear and Enthusiasm Appeals in Election Campaigns across the Globe

Abstract

Little is known about why candidates decide to make use of emotional messages when campaigning for a political office, and under which conditions this is more likely to happen. We focus on the use of fear and enthusiasm appeals and assume that these are a function of profile of candidates and the nature of the context in which the election takes place. We use a new large-scale comparative dataset which includes information about campaigning strategies for 636 candidates having competed in 133 presidential and parliamentary elections in 101 countries between June 2016 and March 2020, based on judgments of 2000+ domestic and international experts. Our results show that candidates benefitting from a comparative advantage (incumbents and frontrunners) tend to rely on enthusiasm appeals, more extreme candidates prefer fear to enthusiasm, and more competitive races tend to foster the use of fear appeals. These findings have important implications for electoral competition, communication theory, and political marketing. All data and materials are openly available for replication.

Reassessing the Impact of Fear Appeals in Sustainable Consumption Communication: An Investigation into Message Types and Message Foci

“…When advertisements adopt fear appeal, they promote consumers' fear of the future and guilt for destroying the environment to influence consumers' behavioral intentions [19]. Because "messages intended to stir emotions are a central component of modern communication" [20], fear can increase campaign effectiveness in different contexts [21]. Nai and Maier [20] revealed that political candidates gain a comparative advantage by applying fear appeal as a driver during election campaigns.…”

“…Because "messages intended to stir emotions are a central component of modern communication" [20], fear can increase campaign effectiveness in different contexts [21]. Nai and Maier [20] revealed that political candidates gain a comparative advantage by applying fear appeal as a driver during election campaigns. Pittman et al [22] discovered that green advertisements that primarily promote compassion, care, and vision are not convincing to non-green consumers.…”