Trump supporter gives the finger to media.
Credit: Reuters/Bryan Woolston TEMPLATE OUT

BUFFALO, NEW YORK — Fear and anger related to the 2016 presidential election and climate change, one of the campaign’s major issues, had different effects on the way conservatives and liberals processed information about the two topics, according to the results of a study by a University at Buffalo communication researcher.

The findings, published in the journal Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, suggest that certain emotional underpinnings of political ideology motived how the electorate sought and processed information about the race itself and global warming.

“This has important implications for how political dialogue is shaped,” said Janet Yang, the paper’s lead author and an expert in the communication of risk information related to science, health and the environment. “It’s not just what the candidates are saying; it’s also how we communicate with one another.” One point to consider is how political speech evokes intentional and unintentional reactions.

“The more we think about political speech, the more we need to study and monitor the emotions related to it […]