Emotions in Politics

Abstract

Abstract Politics is the process of negotiating resources, both in the here-and-now and in the future, by establishing rules about resource allocation. Previous work has argued that adaptations for politics include capacities for political judgment and behavior. The chapter reviews the key role played by emotions for both political judgment and behavior. First, the authors detail how emotions that specifically evolved for negotiation (e.g., anger and envy) influence political judgment and behavior. Second, they review how a number of emotions that were not designed for negotiation also influence political judgment and behavior. Specifically, they review work on the relation between disgust and political attitudes for illustration. Overall, the authors argue for the view that emotions are inherent to politics. Politics—including persuasion, ideology, social coordination, and the pursuit of long-term political goals—cannot be disentangled from emotions. Hence, the classical opposition between emotion and rationality in politics is misleading.