Affective Intelligence Theory Research Articles

Examining How Social and Emotional Factors Inform Response to Cross-Cutting Political Views on Social Media

While social media creates the opportunity for exposure and engagement with cross-cutting political views, they may not always be well-received. Drawing on research related to tie strength, the need to belong, and affective intelligence theory, the present study examined how a combination of social and emotional factors informed how social media users respond to exposure to cross-cutting political views. Survey participants ( N = 288) were presented with scenarios where they were exposed to cross-cutting views on a self-identified important political topic with a close friend and an acquaintance. Social media response strategies assessed included public (comment), private (messaging), ignoring (scrolling past), hiding (muting), and unfriending–unfollowing. The tie strength of the person posting and emotions toward a political topic were identified as salient factors. Results indicated that if the cross-cutting view was shared by a strong tie, participants were more likely to respond by engaging publicly or private messaging, while cross-cutting views shared by weak ties were more likely to lead to ignoring the post as well as the decision to hide or unfriend. Participants also identified how they felt about the political topic selected (enthusiasm, aversion, or anxiety). Anxiety was largely unrelated to the identified response strategies, while aversion predicted the same responses regardless of tie strength. Enthusiasm predicted public and private response for both ties, and predicted ignoring (negative), hiding, and unfriending for close friends.

A Meta‐Analytic Assessment of the Effects of Emotions on Political Information Search and Decision‐Making

AbstractWith increasing interest in the role of emotions in politics across the discipline, we review theoretical and methodological approaches utilized by political psychologists. Although theorists have been highlighting the role of emotions in politics for thousands of years, modern political psychologists primarily employ Marcus, Neuman, and MacKuen's (2000) affective intelligence theory to grapple with the consequences of emotions for political attitudes and behavior. We present results from a formal meta‐analytic assessment exploring the strength of the empirical evidence for the relationship between emotions and political information search and decision strategies. Overall, we find weak but statistically reliable evidence linking anger, anxiety, and enthusiasm to information search when search is self‐reported, but when information search is objectively measured, we find no link between it and anxiety or enthusiasm. Surprisingly, we also find little reliable evidence linking emotions to differential reliance on heuristics or more evidence‐based criteria in voter decision‐making.

Going Beyond Affective Polarization: How Emotions and Identities are Used in Anti-Vaccination TikTok Videos

ABSTRACT The rise of social media as a source of science and health information has brought challenges to informed citizenship and social trust due to the spread of misinformation, particularly anti-vaccination messages that incite hatred and discourage necessary health precautions. These messages often employ emotional appeals and identity cues. However, scholarship examining emotional appeals and identity cues in anti-vax messages is still at the nascent stage. Furthermore, most literature on emotions and identities on social media has focused on text-based platforms, despite the increasing popularity of interactive, multimodal platforms. To address these gaps, our paper analyzes recent TikTok anti-vax videos and incorporates the framework of multimodal frame processing, emotion-as-frames model, affective intelligence theory, and social identity theory. Our paper uncovers how different message modalities affect the impact of emotional narratives and identity cues on user engagement. We also investigate sociopolitical identity cues beyond partisan identities, expanding the current terrain of political communication. Our results demonstrate that audiences engage with emotional and identity cues in anti-vax videos differently based on distinct message modalities. We also found that identity cues related to interpersonal relationships (e.g. parental) and conspiracy groups were prevalent, in addition to partisan identity cues. These results offer new insights into sociopolitical identities beyond partisanship and highlight the importance of considering the multi-modal nature of video platforms. Overall, our paper sheds light on the complex relationship between emotions, identities, and message modalities on social media and provides important implications for addressing misinformation and improving science communication on digital platforms.

The emotional fabric of populism during a public health crisis: How anger shapes the relationship between pandemic threat and populist attitudes

AbstractWhile conventional wisdom connects crises and external threats to increasing support for populism, several questions remain unanswered. Following insights of affective intelligence theory (AIT), we posit that anger and fear elicited by pandemic threat relate differently to populist attitudes. While such relations have already been explored in the context of other hazards (such as financial turmoil, terrorism, or immigration), our study allows us to evaluate the emotional bedrocks of populism in the context of a threat that is not apparently connected to the classical political grievances underlying populism. Expanding the literature on psychological underpinnings of populism and on the political consequences of the pandemic, our analyses of original survey data support our contentions that pandemic threat-induced anger is positively related to populist attitudes while fear is negatively linked to populist stances. This holds in particular for anti-elitism and the Manichean outlook inherent in populism. Altogether, we provide new comparative evidence to the puzzle about the emotional bedrocks of populism by illuminating a domain that has not been systematically explored before.

Expanding our thinking about discrete emotions and politics.

In recent decades, political psychologists have given a lot of attention to the role of emotions in politics. While there have been several different research programs, the dominant paradigm has been set by affective intelligence theory (AIT), developed by George Marcus, Russell Neuman, and Michael Mackuen. AIT has helped explain many puzzles in understanding how emotions influence political decisions, as any good paradigm should. At the same time, I argue it has also had the effect of limiting broader research into the range of discrete emotions, especially contempt. While recognizing the value of AIT, I call for more research that goes beyond its boundaries, showing through several recent studies how a focus on the additional effects of contempt can improve our understanding of voter decision-making.

Leaving democracy? Pandemic threat, emotional accounts and regime support in comparative perspective

As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments even in consolidated democracies have adopted drastic measures, temporarily constraining individual freedoms and expanding executive political decision making. In light of this trade-off between public health measures and democratic norms, it becomes crucial to assess the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on public support for democratic versus authoritarian regimes. Following insights of the affective intelligence theory, emotions, and not only rational considerations, are key to understanding behavioural and attitudinal responses to crises. In the article it is argued that the pandemic threat of COVID-19 affects regime preferences by evoking distinct negative emotions, in particular anger and fear. Using original survey data in six European countries, it is shown that COVID-19-induced anger and fear have divergent effects on regime preferences. While democratic regime preference has declined for angry respondents, there is also a message of hope: fearful respondents display increased support for a democratic regime.

The pandemic and the question of national belonging: Exposure to covid-19 threat and conceptions of nationhood.

Drawing on the behavioural immune system hypothesis, we argue that the prevalence of the Covid‐19 pandemic threat in an individual's respective environment relates to exclusive, ethnic conceptions of nationhood. Referring to the affective intelligence theory, we maintain that specific negative emotions are prompted by the perception of being exposed to a pandemic threat, and these emotional states in turn structure political preferences regarding national belonging. Using an original survey in six European countries during the first peak of the pandemic in late April and early May 2020, we analyze both the impact of individual Covid‐19 experiences and the contextual exposure to a pandemic threat through hierarchical analyses of 105 European regions. Our empirical analysis shows that exposure to the pandemic is linked to stronger ethnic national identities for both levels of analysis. We also find that anger substantially mediates this relationship and has primacy over feelings of fear. Taken together, our results indicate that the behavioural immune system appears as a pervasive obstacle to inclusive orientations.

Toward an Integrative Perspective on Distinct Positive Emotions for Political Action: Analyzing, Comparing, Evaluating, and Synthesizing Three Theoretical Perspectives

Which emotions explain why people engage in political action (e.g., voting, protesting)? To answer this question, theory and research in psychology and political science predominantly focused on distinctnegativeemotions such as anger. The current article conceptually explores the motivational potential of distinctpositiveemotions by developing an integrative perspective that specifies which positive emotions can be differentiated (i.e., theirform), whichfunctionthese emotions have, and whichimplicationsthese have for explaining political action. To this end, I analyze, compare, evaluate, and synthesize three approaches to positive emotions (affective intelligence theory, appraisal theories of emotion, and broaden‐and‐build theory). This perspective generates new hypotheses for the field to test, including the role played by distinct positive emotions such as joy, inspiration, interest, hope, and pride in motivating political action. I discuss how this perspective may help restore a balance in research on emotions and political action by focusing on the motivational potential of distinct positive emotions.

Constructive Journalism in the Face of a Crisis: The Effects of Social Media News Updates About COVID-19

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic brought along with it concerns about anxiety, racial bias, and pushback against public health recommendations, all of which are intensified by the news and social media. This study investigated the effects of constructive journalism in the context of this crisis, by randomly assigning 492 subjects to view simulated social media news updates with different headlines and images. The results showed positive and constructive headlines led to less anger and anxiety than negative headlines. The sanitization of graphic images decreased anger, anxiety, COVID-19 risk perceptions, and anti-Chinese sentiment—a relationship that was mediated by anger and anxiety. These findings suggest constructive journalism can be useful in times of crisis, and that its visual aspect warrants more scholarly attention. Further, these results shed new light on the effects of news exposure via social media in times of crisis, and how this impact depends on specific attributes of the headlines and images of the content being shared. The findings are discussed in relation to the theory of affective intelligence and recent concerns about how news and social media influence the public in times of crisis.

Affective Affordances: Exploring Facebook Reactions as Emotional Responses to Hyperpartisan Political News

This research examines the key characteristics of hyperpartisan news pages on Facebook and how audiences interact with politically polarized content through the visual-emotional shorthand of Facebook Reactions. Through a quantitative content analysis of 4,236 posts shared by the most popular hyperpartisan U.S. Facebook pages before, during, and after the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the researchers introduce the concept of affective affordances to analyse emotional reactions elicited through Facebook Reactions in response to right- and left-leaning Facebook news posts, as well as the political topics, rhetorical devices, stylistic devices and emotionally charged content that are most likely to elicit emotional responses and inspire shares and comments from audiences in reaction to liberal and conservative content. The results are interpreted in light of the theory of affective intelligence.

The Affective Foundation of Political Opinion Expression on Social Media: A Panel Analysis

AbstractSocial media (SM) allow citizens to not only read news but also express their political opinions. Drawing from cognitive appraisal and affective intelligence theory, this study investigated the affective foundation of political opinion expression on social media (POESM) using two-wave panel data. The results indicate that enthusiasm and anger stimulated POESM but only for individuals with a minimum threshold motivation to use SM for political purposes. Among the politically motivated, anxiety increased POESM for individuals with low political knowledge but lessened POESM for ones with high political knowledge. Thus, emotional states can be powerful drivers of POESM. In contexts with low levels of POESM, emotions may stimulate online discussion as well as contribute to the further emotionalization of political debates.

Affective Effect: Issue Engagement on a Youth E-Participation Platform

While E-participation promotes citizen participation in democratic decision-making processes, and often takes place through deliberation, citizens are expected to be cool-headed individuals equipped with reason and logic, insulating their actions from the impulse of emotion. However, research in neuroscience and cognitive science has found that emotion plays a vital part in cognitive processing and is instrumental in decision-making. This study thus fills this research gap by examining the effect of emotions in eliciting participation on a youth E-participation platform. Following affective intelligence theory and appraisal theory, the authors specifically examined three types of emotions; namely, anger, anxiety, and sadness. By applying methods in the field of text and statistical analysis, the authors found that anxiety, although the least common type of emotion expressed on the E-participation platform, was associated with an increased level of engagement. On the contrary, anger dominated issue discussion across topics, and sadness prevailed in the discourse on system-level economic issues.

EMOCIONES EN CONTEXTO ELECTORAL Y ATENCIÓN A POLÍTICA EN MEDIOS: ¿INTELIGENCIA AFECTIVA O EVALUACIÓN COGNITIVA?

Based on a three-waves longitudinal survey, this paper analyzes the changes in emotions during and after the presidential campaign in Mexico in 2018, as well as the relationship between emotions and a “low cost political participation”, such as attention to news. The research makes a contribution to the current debate on the role of emotions on political participation, from various theoretical perspectives, such as the Theory of Affective Intelligence, the Theory of Endogenous Affect, the Theory of Affect Transfer and the Theory of Cognitive Evaluation, all opposed to Rational Choice Theory. We found that emotions changed from more negative to more positive ones, during and after the campaign. In regard to the relationship of emotions and attention to news, we found support for both the Theory of Affective Intelligence, among the nonpartisan participants, and for the Theory of Cognitive Evaluation, among the participants who declared a party partisanship.

Greek political advertising in retrospect: a longitudinal approach

Drawing on the theory of affective intelligence, the present study considers the prolonged recession in Greece as a major event that increased the levels of people’s anxiety and propelled changes in political communication. The purpose of the study was to analyze the tone and the emotional appeals of 584 political advertisements aired over a decade of economic, social and political turmoil. A comparison of the pre-recession (2004–2009) to the recession period (2010–2015) highlighted that comparative advertising among major political parties increased in times of recession. Variations in the emotional appeals were also identified with major parties focusing on negative emotions, whereas minor parties relied mostly on joyful appeals and the use of humor. The findings indicated that during the recession, campaign strategies seem to aim at the manipulation of people’s emotions, alternating between positive and negative tone of advertisement and between the emotional appeals of joy, humor, anger and fear.

Applying the Theory of Affective Intelligence to Support for Authoritarian Policies and Parties

Emotion, after a long period of inattention, began to attract greater scrutiny as a key driver of human behavior in the mid‐1980s. One approach that has achieved significant influence in political science is affective intelligence theory (AIT). We deploy AIT here to begin to understand the recent rise in support for right‐wing populist leaders around the globe. In particular, we focus on specific emotional appraisals on elections held at periods of heightened threat, including the two 2015 terror attacks in France, as influences on support for the far‐right Front National among conservatives. Contrary to much conventional wisdom, we speculate that threats can generate both anger and fear, and with very different political consequences. We expect fear to inhibit reliance on extant political dispositions such as ideological identification and authoritarianism, while anger will strengthen the influence of these same dispositions. Our core findings, across repeated tests, show that fear and anger indeed differentially condition the way habits of thought and action influence support for the far right in the current historical moment. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is anger that mobilizes the far right and authoritarians. Fear, on the other hand, diminishes the impact of these same dispositions.

Against Ahok: An Analysis of Emotion-Driven Movements and Network Power in Jakarta’s 2017 Gubernatorial Election

Many Indonesian citizens reacted angrily to part of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama’s, popularly known as Ahok, video uploaded by Buni Yani to his Facebook account on October 6, 2016. The video was taken during a speech in Kepulauan Seribu where Ahok, the Governor of Jakarta, quoted one verse of Al-Qur'an, Surah Al-Maidah verse 51. Some people were filled with outrage because of Ahok’s statement, but some others were angry because, one week prior to now Yani’s infamous Facebook status, Yani added his own ‘frame’ to that clip. In that status, Yani said, with a question mark, that Ahok had defamed the religion of Islam. It caused the polarization of Indonesian civil society: pro-Ahok bloc, who believed that his words were not an insult to the holy scriptures and anti-Ahok bloc, who strongly argued that Ahok, a Christian of Chinese descent and has no Javanese root in his blood – a minority in 3 categories –, had no right to cite Quranic verses and therefore despised Islam. Consequently, he deserved to be criminalized and deposed from his Governor post. Using Affective Intelligence theory and Manuel Castells’ Network Theory of Power, this paper attempts to analyze the character of both anti-Ahok movement and its counter-movement. While affective intelligence theory centers the effect of affection on political behavior, the network theory of power focuses more on how networks empower individuals to act as a collective entity against the dominant power. The materials for this analysis are obtained mainly from the internet.

Expanding affective intelligence theory through social viewing: Focusing on the South Korea's 2017 presidential election

Based on the affective intelligence theory (AIT), the current research examines how social viewing on presidential debates influences emotions (anger, fear and enthusiasm) and moreover, how these linkages affect cognitive elaboration and tolerance for opposing views. A national survey conducted in the 2017 presidential election shows that social viewing on presidential debates elicited fear and enthusiasm but only enthusiasm was related to cognitive elaboration. Moreover, cognitive elaboration showed a positive relationship with tolerance for opposing views. Enthusiasm mediated the relationship between social viewing on presidential debates and cognitive elaboration as well as tolerance for opposing views. This research contributes to expanding the AIT in the social viewing context, particularly focusing on the presidential debates.

Interplay between Public Attention and Public Emotion toward Multiple Social Issues on Twitter.

This study aims to elucidate the intricate interplay between public attention and public emotion toward multiple social issues. A theoretical framework is developed based on three perspectives including endogenous affect hypothesis, affect transfer hypothesis, and affective intelligence theory. Large-scale longitudinal data with 265 million tweets on five social issues are analyzed using a time series analytical approach. Public attention on social issues can influence public emotion on the issue per se. Social issues interact with one another to attract public attention in both cooperative and competitive ways. Instead of a direct transfer from public emotion to public attention, the public emotion toward a social issue moderates the interaction between the issue and other issue(s).

Esperanza y miedo: una aproximación teórica a las emociones en la comunicación política

Los postulados de la filosofía occidental presentan a la razón y la emoción como dos fuerzas antagónicas. En Occidente, la razón ha tenido que imponerse por sobre la emoción para que las personas tomaran sus decisiones objetivamente. El planteo de Habermas sobre la dimensión racional de la esfera pública reafirma esta tendencia, al considerar que el dominio de lo público debe buscar un orden basado en principios racionales. Si bien en las investigaciones en ciencias sociales el racionalismo continúa predominando, se evidencia un giro en los abordajes, que incorporan el ámbito emocional para comprender fenómenos contemporáneos. Particularmente en la comunicación política, la aproximación a las emociones como objeto de estudio es aún incipiente. Sin embargo, nuevas perspectivas disciplinares permiten innovar en las líneas de investigación en este campo. El objetivo de este artículo es realizar una revisión bibliográfica de los principales postulados de la teoría de la inteligencia afectiva que, de la mano de la neurociencia, aportan otras miradas a los procesos de comunicación política.

Beyond Surveillance

Affective Intelligence Theory (AIT) posits that individuals, when feeling anxious, abandon dispositions and activate their surveillance system to attend to available political information about the focus of their anxiety. However, it is not clear whether, and to what degree, people exercise discernment about the reliability of the information they seek and find—especially when partisan cues and related information are not available in the information environment. We use this article to extend understanding of anxiety’s effect on assessing information reliability about an issue outside the standard partisan framework. Our assessment is based on a lab experiment where 330 non-student subjects were randomly assigned exposure to television ads referencing an impending nuclear terror threat to the United States. The ads included varying degrees of production vividness and either a positively or negatively framed message about the government’s ability to respond to the threat. Results show that the negative and vivid threat ads—when mediated by a subject’s relative level of anxiety—substantially raise the probability of surveying information related to the nuclear threat. However, the anxiety mediator has no effect on subjects checking the reliability of the surveyed information. These findings broaden our understanding of media ad effects by providing greater nuance on the motive for information use and anxiety’s mediating role.