Hot Cognition Hypothesis

When people make decisions in life, emotions often play a large part. If someone is angry, their decision may be very different from one they might make if they are happy. In decision making, specifically the political realm, hot cognition hypothesis, is a theory that helps explain people's decisions with emotions (Lodge and Taber 2005). Hot cognition is emotions influencing the way someone makes a political decision. Memory and how memories are coded is a large part of hot cognition hypothesis. When memories are formed, emotions are coded along with memories in long term memory and these emotions are coded in either positive or negative affects (Lodge and Taber 2005). These memories are retrieved and maintained within long term memory with

Fear and anxiety used to be thought as persuading voters to change their opinions about candidates or topics (Brader 2006). However, recent studies have shown that fear and anxiety rather are more important in attention and questioning opinions, rather than outright changing opinions (Brader 2005; 2006). When a threat is posed to people, they pay attention and usually negative ads increase attention by making the person think there is a threat (Marcus and Mackuen 1993). When people pay attention to the threat, their behaviors change compared to ads that evoke positive emotions. Fear and anxiety alone will not sway voters in their opinions, but rather make voters rethink their opinions, goals, decisions and knowledge (Brader, 2006). It also increases information seeking behavior (Brader 2005). These behaviors that are elicited allow the voter to be more easily persuaded, but simply provoking fear or anxiety from an ad will not persuade a voter (Brader 2006). Fear ads are also powerful in the fact that they can increase motivation and participation in campaigns, however, it is not as strong as a motivator as enthusiasm. The main motivation behind fear and anxiety is to learn about the candidates and reinforce their opinions (Marcus and MacKuen 1993). Overall, fear and anxiety are better motivators for seeking information and questioning decisions as ads that provoke these emotions cause people

Enthusiasm is the main positive emotion that is targeted in political ads, along with hope (Brader 2006). Ads that target enthusiasm typically have uplifting music with positive, bright colored images (Brader 2006, 6). Unlike anxiety and fear, enthusiasm has more potential to change people’s vote (Marcus and Mackuen 1993). Ads that provoke these positive emotions typically lead to the voters viewing the candidates more positively and usually mobilize voters more to be engaged with the campaign (Brader 2006; Marcus and Mackuen 1993). Positive ads also force voters to rely on preexisting knowledge and decisions (Brader 2005). Voters also show no information seeking behaviors when shown positive ads but rather show increased levels of interest in the campaign and candidate (Brader 2005). Enthusiasm has also been shown to make voters more loyal to their party preferences and more willing to vote (Brader 2005). Overall, enthusiasm has a lot of positive benefits when they are used in political