Abstract Why do some people feel stronger emotions about politics than others? Past work suggests that political sophistication, consisting of knowledge and interest, is related to feeling strong emotions about politics, as learning about politics strengthens both cognitive and affective ties with political objects. Drawing on appraisal theories of emotions, we argue why political interest and confidence-in-knowledge, rather than factual political knowledge, are primary drivers of emotional engagement. Using three waves of the ANES and two pre-registered studies (conducted in the Netherlands and the U.S.) we show that political interest and confidence-in-knowledge increase emotional responses to politics. Knowledge, however, is unrelated to or even suppresses feelings about politics. We experimentally test the causal effect of confidence-in-knowledge and find a direct effect on feeling anger. Our findings have implications for civic education and political engagement, as fostering political interest and confidence—rather than merely increasing factual knowledge—may better promote active citizenship, albeit with potential risks if confidence is not rooted in accurate knowledge. We also demonstrate the necessity to theoretically and empirically disentangle the different components of political sophistication.
Rebasso et al. (Fri,) studied this question.