Emotional representation

Identifying the characteristics and consequences of elected officials mirroring the emotions of their constituents

Bibliographic Data

ID11263264
AuthorsChristopher Stout (0000-0001-9993-3465, Department of Political Science University of California, San Diego La Jolla California USA, corresponding author), Davin L Phoenix (0000-0003-2594-5898, University of California, Irvine), Davin Phoenix (Department of Political Science University of California, Irvine Irvine California USA), Gregory John Leslie (0000-0002-0757-7836, The Ohio State University), Gregory Leslie (Department of Political Science Ohio State University Columbus Ohio USA), Elizabeth Schroeder (0000-0001-9444-5489, Department of Economics Oregon State University Corvallis Oregon USA)
Year2025
Publication date2025-12-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-895X • E-ISSN: 1467-9221
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/pops.70102
OpenAlexW7116874268
LanguageEN
References cited64

This study examines which elected officials are most likely to mirror their constituents' emotions in public outreach—a concept we term emotional representation. We also analyze the significance of emotional representation for the targeted group. To accomplish these goals, we examine the degree to which members of Congress mirrored Black people's documented increase in expressions of anger following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. Using a regression discontinuity design and the sentiment analysis of 305,358 tweets, 190,192 Facebook Posts, and 35,409 press releases, we show that descriptive representatives provide the highest levels of emotional representation. To examine the impact of emotional representation, we deployed a two‐stage experiment to 390 Black respondents. We find that Black people who increased in anger after being primed with images of police violence view elected officials who engage in emotional representation as more favorable, empathetic, and trustworthy

Anger · Emotional expression · Mirroring · Public opinion · Representation (politics · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social and Intergroup Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access