TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotional and evaluative consequences of inappropriate leader displays
AU - Bucy, Erik P.
PY - 2000/4
Y1 - 2000/4
N2 - This study manipulated the appropriateness of presidential reasons to images of compelling news events to investigate how a political leader's nonverbal behavior evokes emotional responses and trait attributions. A repeated-measures experiment examining the combined effects of valence and arousal on viewers' affective reactions and trait evaluations was conducted on two voting-age subject pools in different states. Participants were shown a series of four news story-presidential reaction message sequences and were asked to rate a series of felt emotions and communicative traits. Results indicate an evocative function for leader displays that nonperson-specific news images do not share, suggesting a critical role for appropriate nonverbal communication in politics. Inappropriate message sequences elicited negative emotions more intensely than positive emotions and produced uniformly lower trait evaluations, whereas appropriate sequences elicited positive emotions more intensely. Moreover, negative displays were evaluated as significantly more honest, credible, trustworthy, and appropriate than posttive displays.
AB - This study manipulated the appropriateness of presidential reasons to images of compelling news events to investigate how a political leader's nonverbal behavior evokes emotional responses and trait attributions. A repeated-measures experiment examining the combined effects of valence and arousal on viewers' affective reactions and trait evaluations was conducted on two voting-age subject pools in different states. Participants were shown a series of four news story-presidential reaction message sequences and were asked to rate a series of felt emotions and communicative traits. Results indicate an evocative function for leader displays that nonperson-specific news images do not share, suggesting a critical role for appropriate nonverbal communication in politics. Inappropriate message sequences elicited negative emotions more intensely than positive emotions and produced uniformly lower trait evaluations, whereas appropriate sequences elicited positive emotions more intensely. Moreover, negative displays were evaluated as significantly more honest, credible, trustworthy, and appropriate than posttive displays.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0034380424&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/009365000027002004
DO - 10.1177/009365000027002004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0034380424
VL - 27
SP - 194
EP - 226
JO - Communication Research
JF - Communication Research
SN - 0093-6502
IS - 2
ER -