Work

The impact of happiness in political ads on party evaluation: A data donation study with emotion recognition

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the use of happiness in images in political advertisements. We rely on an elaborate data collection effort during the final weeks of the 2021 Dutch parliamentary elections campaign, combining a panel survey, experienced sampling (N=126), and an automated content analysis of political advertisements (N=1115) using Pykognition, an open science tool for emotion detection in photos. Our multi-level moderated-mediation model yields interesting findings: happiness has a small positive immediate effect on party evaluations, and those effects are partly mediated by ad-evoked emotions enthusiasm and anger. The mediation through enthusiasm is moderated by party identification - with stronger effects of happiness on ad-evoked enthusiasm when respondents identify more strongly with the sender of the ad.

Source: Telematics and Informatics Reports

DOI: 10.1016/j.teler.2025.100196

Authors: Xiaotong Chu, Annelien Van Remoortere, Susan Vermeer, Rens Vliegenthart, Sanne Kruikemeier

Institution: Wageningen University & Research

Language: English

Topic: Electoral Systems and Political Participation

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,790

OpenAlex ID: W4409114243

FWCI: 3.863

Cites: 59

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10