Prescribing political emotions: how shifting between anger and fear changes political behavior

Emotions are central to our political decision-making and behavior. Fear and anger are particu-larly consequential, as fear directs attention to threats and fosters reliance on institutions, where-as anger reduces trust and promotes confrontation. However, it remains unclear if and how polit-ical emotions can be easily prescribed, who is most susceptible and what are the political conse-quences. In a preregistered representative experiment (N = 1,000 U.S. citizens), participants se-lected a salient political issue and reported whether they felt fearful or angry. The treatment group was then informed that most in-party members felt the opposite emotion. Compared to control, treated participants showed greater emotional shifts toward the in-group emotion. Shift-ing from fear to anger increased preference for authoritarian-looking political leaders, demonstrat-ing behavioural relevance. Emotional malleability was greater among individuals higher in alex-ithymia and perceived stress. Our findings show how political emotions are socially malleable with the power to change political choices.