Mediation analysis of public emotions in response to policy implementation performance during crises: the case of COVID-19 management policies in the UK

Understanding public emotions in crises is crucial to effective public policy management for governments. This study examines the relationship between pandemic management policies, pandemic management performance, and fundamental emotions according to Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion, in the context of COVID-19 in the UK. Our findings validate the role of emotions in shaping political events and then suggest the involvement of emotions, namely fear and surprise, as mediators in government policies and their subsequent outcomes in pandemic management. The study contributes to the public policy management literature by emphasizing the importance of the heterogeneity of emotions.