This party makes me feel proud, worried and angry, what counts most? Emotional underpinnings of partisanship in a multi-party system

This study examined the impact of emotions on vote choice and the role of partisanship. We hypothesized that emotional responses toward political parties are determinants of partisanship, which in turn affects vote choice. Partisanship was measured in terms of both partisan self-identity (party identification) and attitudes toward individual parties (party evaluations). Web-survey data were collected from a sample of students (N=171) in Italy, a multi-party parliamentary system. CFA confirmed the bi-factor structure of partisanship and the tri-factor dimensionality of emotional responses toward the five major parties: enthusiasm, anxiety and aversion. Path analyses (LISREL) indicated that enthusiasm and aversion had distinct effects on both components of partisanship, whereas anxiety had no impact. Both partisanship components in turn influenced vote choice with different strength depending on the party, and completely mediated the effects of emotions. These findings were very stable across parties and when considering the effects of the general political orientation.