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The Emotional Foundations of Political Support: How Fear and Anger Affect Trust in the Government in Times of the Covid‐19 Pandemic
Author(s) -
Erhardt Julian,
Freitag Markus,
Filsinger Maximilian,
Wamsler Steffen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
swiss political science review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.632
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1662-6370
pISSN - 1424-7755
DOI - 10.1111/spsr.12462
Subject(s) - anger , psychology , government (linguistics) , covid-19 , pandemic , social psychology , political science , politics , medicine , law , philosophy , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , linguistics
Abstract 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.