Emotional Temperature
The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Political Sentiment Poll measures emotional responses to candidates and key issues.
The emotional response measure, or emotional temperature, measures the emotional strength of candidates or issues along a continuum from “above average” to “below average”. The Emotional Temperature is based on an index where 100 is “average.”
The poll also depicts responses in Emotion Groups that divide the Emotional Space, Appeal and Engagement, into nine key areas. It shows the percentage of responses in each of the groups. The nine areas include:
- Comfortable
- Warmed
- Enthusiastic
- Indifferent
- Ambivalent
- Apprehensive
- Sullen
- Troubled
- Alarmed
Why Emotions
Emotions are frequent, specific, and conscious indicators of psycho-physiological activity. Because of this, emotions are powerful influencers of behavior, relationships, evaluation and consideration, to name a few.
There are two primary forms of human response – rational and emotional. As a general rule, humans respond to external stimuli with a combination of both. However, when evaluating the extremes of this response spectrum, there is no such thing as a purely rational decision, but there are purely emotional decisions.
Tapping into and understanding emotions permits researchers and consultants to more fully comprehend why people think and act the way they do. Ultimately, this allows marketers to better understand their particular market and to create content which elicits more powerful responses from the emotional side of the spectrum.
For more information on the Political Sentiment Poll, contact Dr. Jon Morris, Professor of Advertising at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications at jmorris@jou.ufl.edu.