After the minimum qualification benchmark is met, we can move down the list to consider similarities in everything from policy to favorite baseball teams. As far as shared emotion, the fact that a candidate’s level of anger appears to match one’s own reveals little about whether they are fit for office, possess sound judgment or will improve our lives or the state of the country. All it means is that two people are angry.
-Paula Niedenthal is a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she directs the Niedenthal Emotions Lab. She is the past president of the Society for Affective Science and is the author of the textbook “Psychology of Emotion” (2nd edition).