ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Elections and Representation
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1603646
This article is part of the Research TopicPolitical Leadership in Contemporary Democracies: Current Configurations and MutationsView all articles
The Emotional Consequences of Negative Personalist Framing in the 2023 Spanish General Election
Provisionally accepted
- University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
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The purpose of this research is to analyse the effects of the emotional reactions caused by the negative personalist 'repeal Sanchismo' frame on voting for the main party that supported this frame (Partido Popular-PP) and for the party whose leader it was attacking (Partido Socialista Obrero Español-PSOE). In addition, the aim is to determine how these emotional reactions impacted on feelings towards Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP) and Pedro Sánchez (PSOE). Methods: We used the dataset of the Third National Survey on Political Polarization in Spain (CEMOP, 2023), based on a representative sample of the Spanish population (n=1223). Binary logistic regression and OLS linear regression techniques were then applied. Results: Fear and anger towards the 'repeal Sanchismo' frame increased the likelihood of voting for the PSOE and the sympathy expressed towards Pedro Sánchez. Furthermore, the emotions linked to this frame revealed more behavioural and attitudinal consequences than those connected to the frame proposed by the left ('stop the reactionary wave'), which did not adopt a 'negative personalization' focus. Discussion: Personalization and polarization are two defining features of contemporary electoral campaigns that are also closely linked. The emotional reactions achieved by electoral strategies of negative personalist framing are more polarized and also more influential on voting behaviour and political attitudes; however, they can lead to undesired effects of consolidating the adversary, which harm the interests of those that put them into practice.
Keywords: framing effects, Emotions, political communication, Personalization, negative personalization, Negative campaigning, elections
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Crespo-Martínez, Mora-Rodríguez and Rojo-Martínez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: José Miguel Rojo-Martínez, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
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