Exclusively Partisan Emotions? Imitating the Moral Emotional Expressions of Politicians

While studies typically focus on how media performances influence policymaking processes and voter opinions, the interactive nature of political communication suggests a two-way process. Research into how political communication content affects emotional stance of the citizens is still emerging. To contribute to the rising scholarship of emotional mimicry, this chapter aims to explore whether politicians’ moral emotional displays induce similar emotions in individuals, considering factors like partisanship and media consumption habits. It introduces the theory of emotion imitation to analyse the interplay between politicians’ textual manifestations and individuals’ emotional responses, emphasising the importance of emotions in political communication and behaviour. According to the empirical results of the survey analysis, the outstanding role of partisanship is unquestionable not only in moral emotion identification but for emotion stimulus as well. Partisan bias in thinking and feeling also prevail for emotion inducement: in most cases people are more likely to imitate the emotions of supported politicians.