<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>During the Covid-19 pandemic, the global public has relied on their political leaders to guide them through the crisis. The current study investigated if and how political leader’s rhetoric would be associated with collective emotional responses. We used text analytical methods to investigate association between political leader speech and daily aggregates of expressed emotions on Twitter. We collected posts concerning Covid-19 and all speeches by the highest executive power from the USA, UK, Germany, and Switzerland. We applied cross-lagged time series analyses. Political leaders whose communication was more analytic and communal corresponded to increased positivity on Twitter. Collective communal focus, in turn, increased after speeches which were more analytic and negative. Processes of socio-affective dynamics between political leaders and the general public are apparent. Our findings demonstrate that political leaders who present public crises competently and with a sense of community are associated with more positive responses on Twitter.</p>
</abstract>

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the global public has relied on their political leaders to guide them through the crisis. The current study investigated if and how political leader’s rhetoric would be associated with collective emotional responses. We used text analytical methods to investigate association between political leader speech and daily aggregates of expressed emotions on Twitter. We collected posts concerning Covid-19 and all speeches by the highest executive power from the USA, UK, Germany, and Switzerland. We applied cross-lagged time series analyses. Political leaders whose communication was more analytic and communal corresponded to increased positivity on Twitter. Collective communal focus, in turn, increased after speeches which were more analytic and negative. Processes of socio-affective dynamics between political leaders and the general public are apparent. Our findings demonstrate that political leaders who present public crises competently and with a sense of community are associated with more positive responses on Twitter.

Twitter language samples reflect collective emotional responses following political leaders’ rhetoric during the pandemic across four countries

Department of Psychology – Methods for Intensive Data in Psychology

Psychology of Language and Communication

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the global public has relied on their political leaders to guide them through the crisis. The current study investigated if and...

Twitter language samples reflect collective emotional responses following political leaders’ rhetoric during the pandemic across four countries

Publié en ligne: 02 août 2023

Pages: 350 - 383

DOI: https://doi.org/10.58734/plc-2023-0017

Mots clés
COVID-19, Twitter, political leaders, socioaffective dynmics, collective emotions

© 2023 Olenka Dworakowski et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Twitter language samples reflect collective emotional responses following political leaders’ rhetoric during the pandemic across four countries

Publié en ligne: 02 août 2023

Pages: 350 - 383

DOI: https://doi.org/10.58734/plc-2023-0017

Mots clésCOVID-19, Twitter, political leaders, socioaffective dynmics, collective emotions

© 2023 Olenka Dworakowski et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
COVID-19, Twitter, political leaders, socioaffective dynmics, collective emotions