A little political psychology for election season: anger is what we call an “approach emotion.” Anxiety is an “avoidance emotion.” This is important for understanding political mobilization. Anger makes us participate. Anxiety does the opposite.
Here’s how to induce anger: Threaten a group with which voters are strongly identified. Add certainty about who is to blame for that threat. Strong group + identifiable threat = anger.
Anxiety, on the other hand, occurs when either the strong group identity or the identifiable threat is missing.
Imagine you hear a lion. And you’re all alone. But you’re not sure where it is. Do you fight the lion? No, you hide. Now imagine that you see a lion roaring right at you. And you’re surrounded by a big strong group of lion hunters. You fight the lion.
The first scenario is anxiety-inducing, the second is anger-inducing. Anxiety=hide. Anger=fight.
One of the reasons the Trump campaign was effective is that he spoke to a bunch of people who were feeling threatened. They felt that their *relative* status was dropping, but they weren’t entirely sure why. Threat from uncertain source->anxiety->demobilization.
By pointing fingers at immigrants, Muslims, etc., Trump made the source of threat clear (if incorrect). Clarify the source of threat and build a strong sense of unity->change anxiety into anger. This activates voters.
Democrats in 2018 have an advantage, in that their source of threat is clear: Trump and his abettors. As long as they stay unified in their sense of themselves as a group, they will turn out. Which means they need to get over all the Dems in Disarray stories.
The more Democrats are convinced that the party is fractured and weak, they more anxiety will sneak in. The more they are warned “you might not defeat the lion!” the more anxiety they feel. And anxiety demobilizes. The GOP figured this out a long time ago.
So if Dems are serious about winning, they will stop writing/start ignoring all of the stories meant to divide them. They will focus on the goal of controlling Congress- the only way to address the main threat.
Instead of fighting themselves, Dems this year need to be a giant unified team, facing the lion right in front of them. Anyone who incites fights between Dems is rigging the game for the lion. Don’t fall for it.
PS. Enthusiasm also increases action, but not as reliably as anger. It’s more important to fight the lion than to celebrate fighting the lion. But both are important. Check out my book for other social influences driving emotion. amazon.com/dp/022652454X/…
Also check out @AlbertsonB2 and @sgadarian book on anxiety in politics! Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World amazon.com/dp/110744148X/…
