Current Emotion Research in Political Science: How Emotions Help Democracy Overcome its Collective Action Problem

Groenendyk, Eric W.

doi:10.1177/1754073911410746

Cited by 79 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…Emotions have a substantial impact on political attitudes (e.g., Banks and Valentino 2012;Hatemi et al 2013) and behaviors (e.g., Brader et al 2008;Brader 2005;Marcus et al 2000;Panagopoulos 2011;Valentino et al 2011), and help to solve collective action problems in political participation (Groenendyk 2011;Valentino et al 2008). A growing body of research in political science and psychology demonstrates that discrete emotions, such as anger, fear, and anxiety, have distinct effects on political outcomes.…”

Section: State and Trait Emotions In Political Researchmentioning

confidence: 98%

How Disgust Influences Health Purity Attitudes

Clifford

Wendell

2015

Polit Behav

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Food and health regulations are increasingly being pushed onto the political agenda, with rising concerns about genetically modified foods, obesity rates, and vaccination. Public beliefs and attitudes on these issues often conflict with the scientific evidence, yet we know relatively little about what influences opinion on these issues. The public lacks clear partisan cues, and many food and health attitudes cut across the ideological spectrum. We argue that these issues represent new 'purity' attitudes that are driven by the emotion of disgust. Across three studies, both by measuring individuals' trait disgust sensitivity and experimentally inducing an emotional state of disgust, we demonstrate the impact of disgust on food and health policy attitudes. Our results show that greater sensitivity to disgust is associated with support for organic foods, opposition to genetically modified foods, and anti-vaccination beliefs. However, we find only limited evidence that experimentally manipulated disgust affects attitudes toward genetically modified and organic foods. Overall, our results demonstrate that disgust plays an important role in attitudes regarding public health and broadens our understanding of purity attitudes.

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Section: State and Trait Emotions In Political Researchmentioning

confidence: 98%

How Disgust Influences Health Purity Attitudes

Clifford

Wendell

2015

Polit Behav

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“…As it turns out, our analysis of system‐level emotional events fits well with Clore and Ortony’s (2008) characterization of emotions as affective‐laden “reactions to different situational structures” (p. 632). We take additional inspiration not only from affective scientists working in psychology and neuroscience but also from sociologists and political scientists who remind us that emotions are multifaceted social (as well as individual) phenomena that are deeply embedded in the structure and operation of social systems (Barbalet, 1998; Kemper, 1991, 2006) as well as in political judgments and preferences (Groenendyk, 2011; Marcus, 2003). Gordon (1990) noted that, “When we think of a social institution, we often think of a particular emotion associated with it” (p. 167).…”

Section: Emotions Are Structurally Embedded In Social Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rage Against the Machine: The Case for System‐Level Emotions

Solak¹,

Jost²,

Sümer³

et al. 2012

Social & Personality Psych

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Although psychologists have generally conceptualized emotions in light of individual‐ and group‐ level approaches, in the current paper we propose that there are also system‐level emotional events, including both system‐based emotions (experienced as a direct or indirect consequence of system‐level characteristics) and system‐targeted emotions (reflecting evaluations that support or oppose the overarching social system). We begin by discussing how emotions are embedded in the social system and what system‐level functions they serve. We draw on system justification theory to understand the reciprocal relations between emotional life and ideologies that justify or challenge social systems. We then focus on three empirical propositions concerning the dynamics of system‐level emotions: (I) System‐based emotions reflect one’s subjective as well as objective standing in the social order; (II) System‐based emotions reflect one’s subjective appraisal of the social order; and (III) System‐level emotions affect action tendencies and behaviors, including behaviors that promote system stability versus change. The investigation of system‐level emotions promises to deepen our scientific understanding of the motivational dynamics of social stability and social change and to uncover the affective dimension of system justification processes. Extending the social psychological analysis of emotions to include contextual features at the level of social systems builds a much‐needed bridge between emotion research in psychology and sociology.

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“…The way emotions affect political behavior has been a central theme in politics since ancient times (Elster, 1999;Marcus, 2000Marcus, , 2002Neblo, 2007;Nussbaum, 2001), but it is only in the past few decades that it has been the focus of rigorous empirical inquiry (Groenendyk, 2011;Marcus, 2000Marcus, , 2002McDermott, 2004;Neuman, Marcus, Crigler, & MacKuen, 2007). The important advances of this empirical research have helped turn attention to the question of which people are most likely to get affected by emotions.…”

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confidence: 99%

Emotion, Sophistication and Political Behavior: Evidence From a Laboratory Experiment

Lamprianou

Ellinas

2018

Political Psychology

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The way emotions affect political behavior has been a central theme in politics since ancient times, but it is only in the past few decades that it has been the focus of rigorous empirical inquiry. Recent empirical research suggests that emotions may affect different groups of people in distinct ways, but experimental evidence remains scant. Through a double‐blind experiment, this article investigates the degree to which emotions (shame and anger) motivate people with different levels of political sophistication to be more politically active. The findings are two‐fold: (1) Once treated with shame, more sophisticated individuals are more likely to change their political behavior than less sophisticated ones; and (2) once treated with anger, it is people with low levels of prior political involvement who are more likely to report a change in their behavior. The findings highlight the potential of going beyond the existing investigations by adding shame in empirical analyses of how emotions affect behavioral change. The evidence here also shows that different emotions might display different patterns of interaction with sophistication. Practically, the findings point to an emotional venue for the mobilization of citizens who are generally difficult to engage in political life.

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Current Emotion Research in Political Science: How Emotions Help Democracy Overcome its Collective Action Problem

Cited by 79 publications

References 91 publications

How Disgust Influences Health Purity Attitudes

How Disgust Influences Health Purity Attitudes

Rage Against the Machine: The Case for System‐Level Emotions

Emotion, Sophistication and Political Behavior: Evidence From a Laboratory Experiment

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