Our study compared the use of fear messages on Facebook by Barack Obama and Mitt
Romney during the 2012 U.S. presidential elections. Results show that written fear messages
embedded in photographs posted on Facebook by both candidates affected the degree to
which those photographs were shared. More specifically, photographs containing written
fear messages were shared more often than photographs not containing written fear messages.
Furthermore, while the challenging candidate, Mitt Romney, used more photographs
containing fear messages, the increase in shares was consistent across candidates.
Implications regarding information distribution within communities, public relations
practitioners specializing in political campaigning and society as a whole are discussed