The Emotional Foundations of Political Support: How Fear and Anger Affect Trust in the Government in Times of the Covid‐19 Pandemic

Crises like the current coronavirus pandemic evoke negative emotions in the general public. To date, however, little research has been conducted on the influence of these mental states on trust in the government – the uncontested key player in times of crises. Drawing on the appraisal and affective intelligence theories of emotions, we argue that fear and anger as the two crucial negative emotions in times of crises have divergent effects on trust in the government: Whereas fear leads to a rally‐‘round‐the‐flag effect increasing trust in the government, anger attributes blame for the adverse circumstances to the government. We present empirical evidence for our arguments with an original three‐wave online panel survey of 1’600 Swiss residents during the unprecedented times of the coronavirus pandemic. Our analysis provides empirical support for our arguments and further shows that the relationship is strongest for right‐wing respondents

Total Recall? Examining the Accuracy of Poll Recall during an Election Campaign

Despite a considerable interest in the effects of polls published during election campaigns, we know little about how well people internalize and remember their results. This paper studies how accurately citizens recall poll results and factors potentially influencing this accuracy. Theoretically, we draw on research into the perception of polls and poll effects as well as into media effects on political knowledge in general. Empirically, we investigate recall accuracy based on a representative telephone survey conducted two weeks prior to the 2013 German national election. Respondents demonstrated reasonable accuracy in remembering poll results, when they had been exposed to them, and this did not tend to improve drastically with more exposure. Only in the case of recalling the relative poll ranks as opposed to vote shares was more exposure associated with better recall. Politically knowledgeable individuals were consistently better at recalling the polls, but greater interest in the election did not improve recall beyond this

Dynamiken der Wahlkampfberichterstattung : eine longitudinale Analyse der deutschen TV-Berichterstattung 2005 bis 2013

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die Fernsehberichterstattung während der letzten drei Bundestagswahlkämpfe aus zwei Längsschnitt-Perspektiven: Neben der Entwicklung über mehrere Wahlkämpfe hinweg analysieren wir die Entwicklung der Berichterstattung innerhalb der drei Wahlkämpfe und Veränderungen dieser Dynamiken über Zeit. Basis unserer Analysen sind die im Projekt „Kampagnendynamik“ (2005) und der German Longitudinal Election Study (2009, 2013) erhobenen feinkörnigen Inhaltsanalysedaten zu den Hauptnachrichtensendungen von ARD, ZDF, Sat.1 und RTL. Die Ergebnisse widersprechen der Vermutung linearer Trends, die unter Schlagworten wie „Amerikanisierung“ diskutiert werden. Über den Zeitraum 2005 bis 2013 lässt sich keine zunehmende Ausrichtung auf den Wettbewerbscharakter einer Wahl beobachten; im Gegenteil, es stehen vermehrt politische Inhalte im Mittelpunkt. Auch eine wachsende Personalisierung ist nicht festzustellen. Im Verlauf der einzelnen Kampagnen konzentriert sich die Berichterstattung zunehmend auf Kandidaten und Politics-Themen. Zudem konstatieren wir Unterschiede zwischen öffentlich-rechtlichen und privaten Sendern