Political shocks: Understanding major political events from an affective science lens

Major political events that happen suddenly and are beyond the scope of day-to-day politics-political shocks-capture the attention of millions, but little is known about how they affect people. We examine political shocks from an affective science lens, considering people's emotions, how they regulate those emotions, and the motivations those emotions drive. We apply this lens to two political shocks in the United States: the Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh (Study 1; initial N = 430; September-October 2018) and the impeachments and acquittals of President Donald Trump (Study 2; initial N = 979; November 2019-February 2021). We documented how affective processes changed as the events unfolded. As expected, Democrats and Republicans experienced divergent emotional peaks and valleys across time that tracked party "wins" and "losses." Then, we examined how people regulated these emotions and the collective implications of that regulation. Both Republicans' and Democrats' use of the emotion regulation strategy cognitive reappraisal predicted greater positive emotion about these political shocks, which in turn was associated with greater motivation for political action. Compared to Republicans, however, Democrats' use of reappraisal more strongly predicted lower negative emotion about these events, with lower negative emotion in turn predicting lower motivation for action. This party difference suggests that regulating emotion during these shocks may have more strongly impaired Democrats' (vs. Republicans') motivations to act. By examining the consequences of political shocks through an affective science lens, we highlight powerful processes that may shape people's psychologies as well as political landscapes at the national level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).