Campaigning on emotion: Party strategy and emotional appeals in the 2024 UK general election

Purpose: This article examines how political parties used emotional appeals in campaign advertising during the 2024 United Kingdom general election. Methods: Through content analysis of ads published by the Conservative Party, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and Reform UK across their main social media platforms, we identify party-level patterns in emotional strategy and the conditions shaping their use. Findings: The Conservative Party relied heavily on fear, consistent with its trailing incumbent status. Labour led on anger, directing appeals almost exclusively at the Conservative governing record, while also deploying enthusiasm around the promise of change. Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats made the most frequent use of enthusiasm. Across all parties, enthusiasm targeted the ingroup, while anger and fear targeted the outgroup. Conclusions: These findings align with theoretical expectations derived from incumbency status and poll position across a full field of competing parties in a single campaign, providing evidence that electoral periods fuel affective polarisation.