The Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QESB) Party Leader Evaluation Database 2010 – 2019 contains 4,119 words and phrases that evaluate British political party leaders. The data were collected during pre-election focus groups and interviews conducted with participants from England, Scotland and Wales, during the General Election campaigns of 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019. For the party leader evaluation pre-election component, participants were provided with head shot pictures of the party leaders (depending on where in Britain they lived) taken from the party’s own website. They were instructed to write down words or phrases they associate with each person, and indicate if that association was positive, negative or neutral. The data structure mirrors data structures used in sentiment analysis. Each tab contains a column listing participant’s’ words and phrases as a string variable; the next two columns list the election year and leader, affective evaluations (relating to, arising from, or influencing feelings or emotions) as a string variable, and the affective evaluation as a numeric scale from negative –1 to positive +1. These data are suitable for sentiment and discourse analysis, or analytic generalization – establishing that a concept exists within a population regardless of the number of people who hold it. In addition, a supplementary dataset is provided of leaders’ evaluation data from a study with residents of Dundee after the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 (N = 287).The Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QESB) Party Leader Evaluation Database 2010 – 2019 contains 4,119 words and phrases that evaluate British political party leaders. The data were collected during pre-election focus groups and interviews conducted with participants from England, Scotland and Wales, during the General Election campaigns of 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019. For the party leader evaluation pre-election component, participants were provided with head shot pictures of the party leaders (depending on where in Britain they lived) taken from the party’s own website. They were instructed to write down words or phrases they associate with each person, and indicate if that association was positive, negative or neutral. The data structure mirrors data structures used in sentiment analysis. Each tab contains a column listing participant’s’ words and phrases as a string variable; the next two columns list the election year and leader, affective evaluations (relating to, arising from, or influencing feelings or emotions) as a string variable, and the affective evaluation as a numeric scale from negative –1 to positive +1. These data are suitable for sentiment and discourse analysis, or analytic generalization – establishing that a concept exists within a population regardless of the number of people who hold it. In addition, a supplementary dataset is provided of leaders’ evaluation data from a study with residents of Dundee after the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 (N = 287).

The data in this dataset were sourced from the Qualitative Election Study of Britain. Focus groups and interviews were conducted in England, Scotland and Wales pre- and post-election. The 2010 –2015 participants were recruited into the QESB panel using a convenience sample from e-mail solicitation plus referrals, and from 2017, Facebook ads were used for recruitment.  The PIs over-recruited in each wave and invited participants according to a quota to achieve diversity in partisan affiliation, age, geographic location and employment.  To diversify the participant pool, top-up interviews were used to collect data from voters who could not attend an in-person focus groups. Further, online focus groups were used for the same reason. Online participants completed the evaluation exercise before their focus group or interview using a Word or Google document. The leaders evaluation pre-election exercise was conducted in the same way in each wave. Participants were provided a sheet with head shot pictures of the party leaders (depending on where in Britain they lived). Party leader pictures were taken from the party’s own website. Participants were instructed to write down words or phrases they associate with each person, and indicate if that association was positive, negative or neutral. Following the silent brainstorming exercise, the focus group moderator would lead the group in a discussion of the positives, negatives and neutral qualities of each leader. The data included in this dataset only includes the words and phrases written down by the participants, and not the subsequent discussion. For completeness, we include 2014 data, which were collected in the aftermath of the Scottish Independence Referendum and only took place in Dundee. In all other respects, the data collection method was the same as in the main QESB waves.