Can Contempt Cost You an Election?

Abstract

Are politicians who show contempt less likely to attract support from voters? In this project we tested this question using a laboratory experiment. 37 students were recruited from undergraduate courses at NIU. Participants viewed video clips of politicians (both signaling contempt and more neutral emotions), respond to a number of survey quesitons. The emotions signaled in the stimulus videos were FACS coded. Although statistical significance was not achieved, the results were in the hypothesized direction, indicating that politicians were perceived more negatively when contemptuous compared to when facially neutral.