Digital Sentiments: Toward a Theory of Emotions in Digital Governance

ABSTRACT We propose an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that integrates insights from political science, public administration, organizational theory, economics, psychology, sociology, and cognitive science to better understand the role of emotions in governance in the digital age. We argue that citizens' sentiments and emotional responses are central to their relationships with government institutions and bureaucracies. Building on bounded rationality and technology acceptance models, we develop a conceptual model that captures the bi‐directional relationship between emotions and digital governance interactions. This gap is increasingly important as traditional human‐to‐human interactions are progressively replaced by citizen engagement with digital platforms, where emotional responses are directed toward technological systems rather than human officials. We therefore introduce a theory of emotional digital governance and propose a set of propositions that incorporate cultural values as key moderating factors. Finally, we outline the theoretical, methodological, empirical, and practical contributions of this framework for advancing research on digital governance and data‐driven public administration.