Political anger and fear shape preferences for leaders’ facial traits
When citizens evaluate political candidates, their choices may depend heavily on the emotions triggered by current issues — even before they consider a candidate’s policies or party. A recent study by NOMIS Awardee Manos Tsakiris and Mariana Von Mohr reveals that feelings of anger and fear systematically alter the facial traits voters prefer in their leaders. The findings were published in Cognition and Emotion.
In the study, researchers presented US Democrats and Republicans with computer-generated facial pairs varying in dominance and trustworthiness. Participants selected faces they believed would best handle specific political issues that made them either angry or afraid.
When people felt angry, they were more likely to choose a dominant-looking leader: 49.5% of choices favored dominance, compared with 46.5% when they felt afraid. More importantly, anger made participants weigh facial dominance more heavily and trustworthiness less heavily, while fear increased their reliance on trustworthiness cues. In other words, anger seemed to prime people for confrontation, whereas fear encouraged a search for protection and reassurance.
The findings matter because elections often run on emotionally charged issues. In contemporary politics, campaigns and media frequently amplify specific emotional narratives. Because subtle emotional shifts can alter how voters weigh leadership traits, political framing that stirs anger versus fear could meaningfully sway election outcomes.
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Read the Cognition and Emotion publication: Political emotions shape preferences for leaders’ facial traits: anger favours dominance, fear favours trustworthiness
NOMIS researchers
About Manos Tsakiris Manos Tsakiris is the inaugural 2016 NOMIS Awardee. He is professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London (London, England). He led the Body and Image in Arts and Sciences (BIAS) project and is currently director of the Centre for the Politics of Feelings. Tsakiris was born […]
Professor of Psychology
Royal Holloway University of London
The Warburg Institute
NOMIS Project(s)
Centre for the Politics of Feelings
In the current sociopolitical context of democratic crises and rising populism, our visceral states, feelings and emotions have come to the forefront of the political behavior of citizens and policy makers alike. Emotions are now seen as both drivers and targets of politics. Yet an empirically driven, critical analysis of the assumed emotional climate in […]
NOMIS researcher
Project period
2021 – 2027
