FEAR IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION: EMPHASIS ON FEAR OF UNKNOWN

Politics involves emotions (Redlawsk, 2006) and reasoning (Redlawsk & Pierce, 2017).The study of political communication campaigns generally follows two directions (Weber, 2007): emotional valence (positive and negative campaigns) and the impact of enthusiasm and fear.The modern founder of this latter direction is considered to be political psychologist and scholar Ted Brader.If the political communication process is filled with content and imagery associated with success and aimed at evoking enthusiasm, voter motivation to engage in the political process increases, reinforcing existing beliefs and making political decisions based on these beliefs-such as voting for a candidate.Conversely, if the political communication process is filled with content and imagery associated with fear, voter motivation increases to reconsider existing beliefs and encourage reassessment of their choices based on current evaluations.The analysis of threat perception is central to understanding Brader's findings.Moreover, the perception of threat can have both direct and indirect impacts on political behavior.The hypothesis of this paper suggests that negative emotions require more differentiation to have an indirect influence on political behavior as clear and distinct as direct influence: the likelihood of predicting political behavior through the political communication process will increase, and the political communication process will become more precise.Based on a qualitative content analysis of the Georgian Dream Party statements, this paper hypothesizes that if we do not limit our response to threats solely to fear (Brader & Marcus, 2013) but also consider the fear of unknown, we can better highlight the indirect influence on political participation and engagement, significantly narrowing the field of interpretation in the political communication process.