Galina Vissoky Schwartzman presented the paper “Digital Sentiments: Towards a Theory of Emotions in Digital Governance”

At the 2026 Annual Conference of the European Network for Public Administration (ENPA), held in Bucharest, Romania, from 22–25 April 2026, Galina Vissoky Schwartzman presented the paper  “Digital Sentiments: Towards a Theory of Emotions in Digital Governance” 

The paper, co-authored with Prof. Eran Vigoda-Gadot and Dr. Evgeny Styrin, reflects the fruitful academic collaboration between HSE University and the University of Haifa.

The study was recently accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Public Administration Review and represents an interdisciplinary contribution to the growing field of digital governance research. The paper explores how emotional responses and cultural dimensions influence citizens’ trust, perceptions, and behavioral intentions toward digital government systems, combining theoretical development with empirical evidence from an AI-based experimental design.

The research integrates perspectives from public administration, psychology, and digital governance, while also incorporating physiological and emotional measurements to examine citizen reactions to digital public services. Presented during the ENPA conference in Bucharest, the paper generated interest in the role of emotions and affective processes in shaping trust in government technologies and digital interactions. The presentation highlighted the importance of moving beyond purely rational models of citizen behavior and offered a new framework for understanding emotional dimensions in contemporary governance environments.