National Emotional Climate and Personal Political Views in Grenada, with Regional Comparisons

Abstract

We examined the association of national emotional climate to personal political views in 159 Grenadian citizens. Grenadians completed five national emotional climate scales: Anger at Government, Fear, Hopeless-Insecurity, Security and Social Trust. We also measured the following personal political views: desire to emigrate, confidence in nonviolent protest and willingness to surrender freedom. Anger at Government and Security predicted desire to emigrate and Security predicted confidence in non-violent protest; national emotional climate scores and willingness to surrender freedom were unrelated. Grenadians were less angry at government, less fearful, and less hopeless-insecure as well as more secure and more socially trusting than Colombians and Costa Ricans, but less secure and more hopeless-insecure than US respondents. Grenadians expressed a relatively positive national emotional climate with few signs of collectively held emotions that might precipitate further emigration and renewed civil unrest. We offer suggestions for future research on national emotional climate in Grenada and the Caribbean generally.