UC Davis

Political scientists have endeavored to integrate psychology literature on human emotions into the political science literature on voting behavior. An emotion that has received little attention is the emotional state of embarrassment. One way embarrassment occurs is when we are embarrassed by the actions of another person, a phenomenon known as a vicarious embarrassment. In this thesis, I attempt to demonstrate that vicarious embarrassment is a causal factor in voting behavior. Using public opinion survey data from 2018, I show that vicarious embarrassment uniquely affects our evaluations of co-partisans. Specifically, I find that vicarious embarrassment is a strong predictor of Republican defections from Trump even when controlling for other distinct emotional dispositions toward Trump and voters’ political ideology. I also find that operational liberalism only predicts Trump defection among Republicans when interacted with vicarious embarrassment.