"Happy Warriors": Leaders' Facial Displays, Viewers' Emotions, and Political Support

Abstract

Do facial gestures of leaders elicit emotional responses that have important effects on public attitudes? Using a research design based on social psychology and ethology, videotaped excerpts of all candidates in the 1984 presidential election were carefully selected and shown to experimental groups in January and October 1984. Neutral and happy/reassuring facial displays of different candidates were found to vary in the emotions they elicited. For both samples, changes in viewers' attitudes were more likely to be influenced by the emotional responses to happy/reassuring displays than by such cognitive variables as party identification, issue agreement, or assessment of leadership ability. Since this effect was found whether excerpts were seen with or without the sound, viewers' emotional reactions cannot be attributed to verbal messages or paravocal cues.