This week, UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced that a snap general election will be held on the 8th June. Seven weeks doesn’t leave the political parties with a lot of time to form and lead a strong campaign.
We used our emotion analytics tool Emotics to analyse Twitter mentions relating to the surprise election to understand how people feel about it. Emotics analysed over 3,000 tweets across 8 emotional indexes – Joy, Trust, Surprise, Interest, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear.
Emotics uses mathematical algorithms to uncover the key topics which people comment on with emotional intensity, and provides an overall brand performance metric known as the Adorescore. The Adorescore is measured on a scale of -100 to 100. The higher the score, the more positive the content.
Mentions of the hashtag #PMQs following the election announcement had a negative Adorescore of -21, with sadness being the key emotion present throughout mentions. Over two thirds of mentions were from Twitter users who were frustrated with the decision, as many believe this new round of elections won’t change anything. Many also took the announcement as an opportunity to highlight their opinions of the Prime Minister and the current government.
https://twitter.com/AlanRoulstone/status/854991656227045378
Theresa May:
"I mean what I say and I say what I mean."Theresa May:
"No general election until 2020."
"Better if we're inside the EU." pic.twitter.com/JPNExWdcob— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) April 19, 2017
Mentions of Theresa May on Twitter drive high levels of anger and sadness, especially those against her decision not to allow a televised debate of the party leaders prior to elections.
#PMQs PM says "more money being spent on schools than ever" Try telling that to the schools fundraising to pay for books and loo rolls
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) April 19, 2017
Mentions of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn evoked high levels of trust and interest due to his strong performance during the PMQs and debating well with Theresa May.
If @Theresa_May is so proud of her record, why is she dodging head-to-head TV debates with me? #PMQs pic.twitter.com/FC0Yd2iqP6
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 19, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn welcomed the possibility of a televised debate, stating:
“I welcome ITV’s decision to attempt to hold a TV debate with the Prime Minister. If Theresa May is so proud of her record, why won’t she debate it? She cannot be allowed to run away from her duty to democracy and refuse to let the British people hear the arguments directly”.
Jennifer Faull at The Drum claimed that “unlike past elections, [this election] won’t be won with facts and policies. Rather it’s about sentiment and convincing voters of who they should trust to lead them through the coming years”.
Both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn mentions were also analysed for levels of trust evoked. During the #PMQs mentions of Jeremy Corbyn (27) contained higher levels of trust when compared with Theresa May (25). With the levels of trust being so close, it is likely that they will fluctuate between now and June 8th.
At Adoreboard, we will be closely tracking the key emotions felt by the public in the run-up to the election. Understanding the emotions felt towards political decisions, parties and MPs can provide a deeper insight into public perception. Adoreboard’s customer experience analytics tool Emotics provides a pathway to measure emotional intensity felt around customer experience and public perception, understand the main themes driving emotional intensity and enable campaign decision makers to make informed decisions to actively improve customer, or in this case voter, experience and loyalty.
To find out how Adoreboard our software can help you and your brand stand out from the crowd click here.
(Image Source: Getty Images, Reuters)
