Is Protest Only Negative? Examining the Effect of Emotions and Affective Polarization on Protest Behaviour

Luca Bettarelli, Caroline Close and Emilie van Haute
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Luca Bettarelli: Centre d’Étude de la Vie Politique (CEVIPOL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Caroline Close: Centre d’Étude de la Vie Politique (CEVIPOL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Emilie van Haute: Centre d’Étude de la Vie Politique (CEVIPOL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Politics and Governance, 2022, vol. 10, issue 4, 311-324

Abstract: This contribution sheds light on the link between affect and protest behaviors. Using data from a voter survey conducted around the 2019 elections in Belgium, we examine two dimensions of affect: a vertical one, i.e., negative and positive emotions towards politics in general, and a horizontal one, i.e., affective polarization towards fellow citizens. Our findings make three important contributions. First, we identify five distinct classes of respondents depending on their emotions towards politics (apathetic, angry, hopeful, highly emotional, and average). Second, we demonstrate that the combination of both anger and hope is more strongly associated with protest action than anger alone. By contrast, apathy, characterized by an absence of emotions towards politics, is negatively related to protest behavior. Third, we show that affective polarization is a key driver of protest behavior per se. We also show that the two dimensions of affect have distinctive effects. Yet they interact: Affective polarization towards political opponents compensates for the absence of emotions towards politics in general.

Keywords: affective polarization; Belgium; emotions; protest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:311-324

DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5665

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