Journal of Public Relations Research

The Emotional Turn in Public Relations Theorizing

Since the 1990s, the social sciences have experienced an emotional turn. Fields including anthropology, psychology, management, history, political science sociology, geography, and economics have moved away from purely rational theories to include emotions in their explanation of human behavior.  The emotion turn is not simply including emotion as a topic or variable but as a lens for developing new perspectives (Gonzalez, 2017). Emotion is being recognized as fundamental to the “human experience” (Lemmings & Brooks, 2014).  One facet of this emotional turn has been the realization that emotions are a valuable part of knowing. Consider how management researchers used emotions to shift our understanding of social assessments including reputation.  Reputation, a common variable in public relations research, is predominantly a rational concept. Researchers were encouraged to explore other forms of social assessment that included a stronger emotional component due to the limitations of the more rationale focus of reputation (Pollock et al., 2017).

Public relations has been experiencing an emotional turn since the 2000s.  More researchers are integrating emotion into their ways of explaining behaviors and relationships in public relations—utilizing emotion in their theorizing. Examples of the emotional turn in public relations theorizing can be found in the major research lines of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social advocacy (CSA), internal communication, and crisis communication.

While we recognize CSR and CSA are distinct conceptually, polarization and politization has conflated the two so we are discussing them together.  Schoenborn et al. (2024) have identified the growing importance of polarization to CSR.  Polarization has a natural connection to emotions. The role of employee emotions (pride and embarrassment) has been used to examine employee reactions to CSR communication.   Emotional marketing highlights the role of human emotions in marketing (Shao et al., 2022) and moral emotions including awe and gratitude (Xie et al., 2019) have been applied to understanding how consumers respond to CSR communication. Byun and Mann (2024) used moral emotions to explain reactions to CSA.  Intrinsic motives for CSA produce reactions of gratitude and elevation (positive emotions) while a lack of intrinsic motives evoked anger (negative emotion). Weber et al (2023) studied the emotions associated with CSA in social media.

Internal communication has introduced emotional culture and emotional intelligence as explanatory mechanisms.  Emotional culture has been identified as the social glue for organizations and has been linked to a variety of outcomes including identification and advocacy (Yue et al., 2021; Men & Robinson, 2018; Men & Yue., 2019).  Zhang (2026) edited the book, Emotional Intelligence and Public Relations: EQ and the New IQ. Ravazanni and Mazzei’s chapter on emotional intelligence (EI) is one example of its application to internal communication. EI has been linked to essential internal crisis communication concepts such as dialogue, trust, and credibility (Alsayed, 2022; Christie et al., 2015).

The Integrated Crisis Mapping Model (ICM) was a bold step integrating emotion into crisis communication theory (Jin et al., 2007).  Crisis managers can enhance crisis messaging by understanding the emotions being experienced by their stakeholders. ICM explores how emotions vary across crisis types finding anxiety to be very common emotion (Jin et al., 2012). Coombs and Holladay (2007) explored how anger can be a motivator to stakeholder intentions to engage in negative word-of-mouth. Empathy is not a specific emotion but closely tied to validating emotions.  Research has consistently found affective empathy is valuable to understanding the effects of crisis communication (DeWaele et al., 2020; Ndone & Park, 2022; Schoofs et al., 2019).  Coombs and Tachkova (2024) explored the role of moral outrage in sticky crises, identified the emotion as a boundary condition for situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), and presented a series of propositions about the effects of moral outrage on the crisis communication dynamic.

Focus of the Special Issue

The central aspect of this special issue is how emotions are being utilized as explanatory mechanisms and are essential elements when developing new theories.  We are soliciting manuscripts that reflect the way emotions have become part of theorizing and not simply used as “a variable” in a study. In other words, how emotions are used as a lens to understand public relations. The focus should be on how emotions are vital resources used to understand behaviors and relationships in public relations. The call is seeking research featuring the emotional turn in public relations theorizing focusing on but not exclusive tothe areas of CSR and CSA, internal communication, and crisis communication. We are interested in research that employes emotion as a critical element of theorizing and an explanatory element of public relations.  Research can include new theory building centering on emotion, understanding how emotions can serve as boundaries of existing theories, and literature reviews (narrative reviews, integrative reviews, or meta-analyses) that yield insights into how emotions have illuminated new insights into behaviors and relationships essential to public relations.

Potential Topic Areas

CSR and CSA

• What emotions can inform CSR communication and CSA given the politization and polarization that can surround both?
• What additional theories can be applied to CSR communication and CSA to move beyond what has been provided by the emotional marketing perspective?
• What can the emotional turn in public relations theorizing contribute to the increasing need to understand how affective polarization is reshaping CSR communication and CSA?
• Do ethics matter when navigating complex emotions through CSR and CSA discourse? What is the role of moral motivations in understanding ethical theorizing around emotions?

 

Internal Communication

• How can emotional intelligence be used to further our understanding of internal communication and how it relates to important outcomes?
• How might we expand the understanding of emotional intelligence to enhance its explanatory power for understanding internal communication?
• What makes emotional culture such a powerful explanatory mechanism for understanding internal communication?
• How might the application of affective event theory be expanded in its application to internal communication?
• What additional emotions might help to illuminate internal communication and why might they be of value?
• How is emotion informing internal communication regarding CSR, advocacy, and activism considering affective polarization among internal publics?

Crisis Communication

• What additional emotions might help to elaborate the Integrated Crisis Mapping Model and why might they be of value?
• Sentiment is a commonly used tool to facilitate the examination of emotions during a crisis as part of theory building and testing. What does sentiment analysis tells about the overall emotional state of stakeholders during or in the aftermath of a crisis event?
• When emotions are the focus in crisis communication, reputation becomes a weak or irrelevant outcome variable. What crisis outcomes are better reflections of the emotional turn in crisis communication and what insights might they offer into crisis communication?
• How has and can the insights from internal communication bolster our understanding of internal crisis communication (Tachkova & Brannon, 2025)?
• What ethical perspectives can help us to understand the emotional turn in crisis communication?
• What methodological perspectives can facilitate theorizing around the emotional turn in crisis communication?

General Themes

• Empathy has proven to be important across a range of public relations activities (Zhang & Adegbola, 2022). Though many do not consider empathy an emotion, it has strong ties to the emotion literature. What makes empathy such a power factor in public relations?
• EI is another factor with applications across a range of public relations activities. Why and how is EI beneficial to public relations?

*Manuscripts submitted to the special issue also will be considered for a new, edited book entitled The Emotional Turn in Public Relations Research.  If a manuscript is not published in the special issue, it can still be selected for publication in the edited volume.  Consideration for inclusion in the book will be done as part of the review process.

 

References

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Christie, A. M., Jordan, P. J., & Troth, A. C. (2015). Trust antecedents: emotional intelligence and perceptions of others. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 23(1), 89-101.

Coombs, W.T., & Holladay, S. J. (2007). The negative communication dynamic: Exploring the impact of stakeholder affect on behavioral intentions. Journal of Communication Management, 11(4), 300-312.

Coombs, W. T., & Tachkova, E. R. (2024). How emotions can enhance crisis communication: Theorizing around moral outrage. Journal of Public Relations Research, 36(1), 6-22.

De Waele, A., Schoofs, L., & Claeys, A. S. (2020). The power of empathy: The dual impacts of an emotional voice in organizational crisis communication. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 48(3), 350-371.

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