Feeling like a state: social emotion and identity

Mercer, Jonathan

doi:10.1017/s1752971914000244

Cited by 205 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…The problem that scholars of international relations face in studying emotion is that emotions are incredibly complex, with psychologists and neuroscientists still working out the details of what they are and how they operate. Although we do know a number of important characteristics of emotions, such as the way “emotions influence beliefs” (Frijda and Mesquita :45), the important links rather than separation between cognition, affect, and emotion (Haidt ; Mercer ), how they may be held individually or collectively (Sasley ; Ross ; Mercer ), and the important role of automatic processing in the brain that produces preferences and behaviors such as habit (Hopf ), debates abound. Marcus (:224) concludes that emotion research is “rife with basic disagreements about crucial conceptual definitions.”…”

Section: Approaches To Emotions In Ir and Foreign Policy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Believing This and Alieving That: Theorizing Affect and Intuitions in International Politics

Holmes

2015

Int Stud Q

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Rationalist models of decision making typically follow the general form of desire + belief = action. But determining an actor's beliefs and desires often proves challenging. One set of theories turns to psychology—and in particular emotions—to uncover how emotions help to shape and strengthen beliefs. Some of this work establishes a fit between emotions and the rationalist paradigm. It holds that emotions account for more than irrational behaviors; they also serve as a source of rational belief. Feeling, it claims, is believing. I argue that if actors belive in the reasonability of their feelings, then this move is warranted. But a range of behavior defies this logic. Instead, I suggest that actors often find themselves torn between contradictory affective intuitions, on the one hand, and rational beliefs, on the other. In consequence, they hold rational beliefs, but their resulting behavior qualifies as irrational. I apply existing work on the distinction between belief and alief to make sense of this phenomenon. I illustrate my claims through a rereading of the security dilemma—where irrational intuitions, in conjunction with rational beliefs, fuel conflict.

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Section: Approaches To Emotions In Ir and Foreign Policy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Believing This and Alieving That: Theorizing Affect and Intuitions in International Politics

Holmes

2015

Int Stud Q

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“…My country, right or wrong. Thus, Jonathan Mercer argues that emotion plays an important part in shaping group identity, and that it can be experienced collectively, as part of our social identity (Mercer 2014). We can feel outrage at the violation of group norms, even if we are not the individual who loses out.…”

Section: Group Loyaltymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Psychology of Modern Conflict

Payne¹

2015

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“…Towards this end, apart from different frameworks of emotions such as cognition oriented works or accounts taking emotions as non-reflective bodily sensations in light of affect (Clore & Huntsinger, 2009;Frijda, 1986;Hutto, 2012;Massumi, 2002;Nussbaum, 2001;Thrift, 2004), what 'emotional turn' in IR overlooks is emotions' role in transnational protests or movements like the Arab Spring. These issues are generally ignored in the literature concentrating on emotions and state behaviour (Eznack, 2011(Eznack, , 2013Hall, 2016;Koschut, 2014) or emotions in elite-decision making (Crawford, 2000(Crawford, , 2014Mercer, 2006Mercer, , 2010Mercer, , 2014Pace & Bilgiç, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of emotions during the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt in light of repertoires

Coşkun

2019

Globalizations

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This article examines the role of emotions during the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt in the context of collective level emotions in mobilizations. Emotions are understood as a catalyst whose mechanism of action is performed through repertories. This article seeks to answer how emotions, having a triggering role, are performed through repertoires while accelerating mobilization against authoritarian orders, creating the intersection of individual and collective level emotions in public spheres of Tunisia and Egypt, and thus affecting the transnational diffusion of emotions. The significant reason to address emotions is to explain what stimulated the Arab Spring and how it spread over the region starting from Tunisia and Egypt. This article synthesizes two literatures: International Relations (IR) and social movements studies in light of emotions and components of repertoires which are as follows: collective action, collective identity, symbolic politics, network society and information politics.

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Feeling like a state: social emotion and identity

Cited by 205 publications

References 66 publications

Believing This and Alieving That: Theorizing Affect and Intuitions in International Politics

Believing This and Alieving That: Theorizing Affect and Intuitions in International Politics

The Psychology of Modern Conflict

The role of emotions during the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt in light of repertoires

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