Enraged and engaged? Emotions as motives for discussing politics

Avery Lord — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:53:13 +0000

Enraged and engaged? Emotions as motives for discussing politics Avery Lord Wed, 06/17/2026 - 10:53

By: Jennifer Wolak, Anand Edward Sokhey

Abstract:

The 2016 presidential campaign made some feel angry, while others felt anxious, embarrassed, or enthusiastic. We explore how these emotions relate to patterns of political talk within informal conversation networks. Using items from the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we link emotional reactions to rates of conversation, interest in political talk, and exposure to disagreeable viewpoints. Rather than deterring people from contentious conversations, we find that the heightened emotions are associated with greater engagement in political talk. Those who feel angry do not confront their opponents. Instead, they avoid conversations with those who do not share their views, where anger is tied to partisan patterns of political discussion. Feelings of embarrassment have the opposite relationship, as those who felt embarrassed during the campaign were more likely to discuss politics with those with contrary views. These results inform when and how people engage in political talk.

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Does the public hold governors accountable for policy outcomes?

Avery Lord — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:14:14 +0000

Does the public hold governors accountable for policy outcomes? Avery Lord Tue, 06/16/2026 - 15:14

Does the public hold governors accountable for policy outcomes?

By: Jennifer Wolak, Srinivas Parinandi

Abstract:

What are the origins of gubernatorial popularity? Past studies debate whether governors are substantively evaluated based on their performance in office, with some arguing that the origins of approval may be idiosyncratic to particular governors. These studies typically consider gubernatorial approval in a handful of states or patterns of approval in the aggregate. We improve on this research by drawing on a richer data source: the Cooperative Congressional Election Study. We consider both individual-level and state-level explanations of gubernatorial popularity with a sample of over 300,000 respondents across the 50 states from 2006 to 2018. We explore how party, policy outcomes, and government performance shape levels of gubernatorial approval. We show that people evaluate governors based on the ideological direction of policy outcomes in the states. When state policy outcomes align with their ideological preferences, people report higher levels of approval for the job performance of their governor. We also confirm the importance of party and state economic performance for gubernatorial approval.

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Jenifer Wolak

Enraged and engaged? Emotions as motives for discussing politics

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Does the public hold governors accountable for policy outcomes?

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