The presidential election is right around the corner and Michigan is going to play a crucial role in the election results.

For MSU Today’s 2024 Election Spotlight Series, I’m talking with MSU researchers and experts who can discuss all things elections and politics. Each guest brings a unique perspective on research and work they’re doing that relates to the 2024 Election.

 

Monique Mitchell Turner is a professor and chair of the MSU Department of Communication. She studies the role that emotion plays in persuasion. She has been researching anger since the 1990s, with emphasis on whether appeals to anger can work for politicians and activists and how it affects what we think and pay attention to. 

 

Conversation Highlights:

 

(0:57) – What’s your background, and what attracted you to the deanship of the Department of Communication?

 

(2:35) – What’s the history and mission of the Department of Communication?

 

(4:13) – What are your research interests?

 

(5:42) – Talk about the dominant force that anger can be in driving judgments and decision making, particularly as it relates to the election.

 

(8:40) – Candidates for office understand that fear and anger can motivate voters, right?