The Role of Sadness in Political Trust

• In Event: How Do You Feel about That? The Role of Emotion in Politics

Abstract

How can apolitical and political sadness influence trust in political institutions and actors? Despite 29% of Americans feeling sad about “what is going on in the country today” (Public Religion Research Institute, 2018, p. 4), little work in political science examines how sadness influences political attitudes, behaviors, and trust in institutions. In this project, I argue that both apolitical and political sadness are underexplored variables that decrease trust in democratic institutions. A consequence of decreased trust is less political participation and interest in electoral politics for the “average voter,” which leads to the rationalization that “nothing can change” and increases polarization in the US (Hetherington & Rudolph, 2015). To examine the relationship between sadness and political trust, I conducted a survey experiment with undergraduate students at a Midwestern Research University during the 2020 US Presidential Election. I use a between-subjects design to measure trust in government before and after the results of the 2020 Presidential Election. I also provide three main experimental conditions in the study: Writing about a time when politics made you very sad, writing about a time when you felt very sad, and a control condition. I expect that trust in government decreased after the results of the 2020 Presidential Election were reported; I also hypothesize that both the political and apolitical treatments decrease trust in political actors and political institutions. Finally, I provide data from the 2018 ANES to demonstrate that citizens who feel sad about politics are less likely to participate and express interest in politics—the effects of the study plausibly extend to the world outside of the experiment. Ultimately, this project provides evidence about the ubiquity of sadness in politics, how apolitical and political sadness decrease trust in democratic institutions, and how the differential effects of apolitical and political sadness on trust.

Author

• James Steur