basic political psychology

Bakker & Lelkes

ideology: top-down vs bottom-up factors which shape ideology, self-reported ideology imprecise

Freeder et al.

ideology: no consensus about what share of citizens hold meaningul views of public policy, observational equivalence problem and measurement error, large segment of the public lacks knowledge of ‘‘what goes with what'‘ and therefor lacks stable policy views

Freeder et al. study

two-wave survey, longitudinal, US based, participants asked about candidate or party issue position, participants counted as having correct perceptions only if they passed the test in both waves, individual stability analysis whether respondents remain on the same side of the policy scale in both waves

Freeder et al. conclusions

findings inconsistent with folk theory for democracy but issue public view works, absence of stable views independent of party, partisan attachment may strengthen as followers come to hold their partys issue positions dearly

Kustov et al.

ideology: common assumption that immigration attitudes are malleable, do voters change their minds about immigration long term, any theory about immigration attitudes must make assumptions about stability

Kustov et al. study

United states and Western Europe nine panel surveys which have at least three waves and span at least two years, ideal due to affect of refugee crisis, longtiduinal and cross national study

Kustov et al. findings

immigrations attitudes are remarkably stable, even across major political and economic shocks, individual stability attitudes also highly stable, younger individuals shoul have lower correlations

Boston et al.

personality: correlation between personality traits using ten item personality inventory and Americans political attitudes and behaviors, big five dimensions: openess to exprience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability

Boston et al. study

Six waves of TIPI data from the nationally representative American panel survey covering two years, does measurement of individual-level personality vary over time, observed stability uncertainty, whether this would be representative over a lifetime, pseudo-replication of a previous study analyzing the relationship between personality and ideological placement using the five TIPI dimensions and find relationship between self-reported ideology and certain personality facets

Boston et al. result

only openess moves with changes in political views, individual level of variation primarily for openess, reconsideration of the assumption that TIPI predates political attitudes

Fatke

perrsonality: five factor model across 21 countries, variations across countries and policy preferences, social and economic dimension, five factor model emerges regardless of difference in cultures and languages, citizens adapt to standard of living which shapes strivings, motives, goals, values, and ulitmately political judgement

Fatke study

abbrevaited version of the big five, two items per trait totaling 10 agree/disagree requests, world value survey conducted between 2010 and 2014 in 21 countries

Fatke results

extraversions significantly associated with left-wing ideology, conscientiousness strongly associated with right-wing positon, openess to experiences significantly left, agreeable and neurotic also more left, coefficients drop below conventional significance if influential countries excluded, personality does not affect political ideology and policy preference in every country the same way

Bakker et al.

emotions: hot cognitive hypothesis - all sociopolitical concepts affectively charged in the brain, affective nature key to political decision-making, arousal: intensity of directive responses, valence: direction of responses

Bakker study

397 dutch adults surveryed about political attitudes and socioeconomic background, connected to physiological equipment and treatment in a video clip, EMG signals of secific muscles in face and tracking of sweat secretion

Bakker results

effect of attitude extremity is positive and statistically significant, arousal stronger as attitudes become more extreme which aligns with suggestions for the directional model of voting, issue saliency has zero effect

Redlask and Matters

emotions: appraisal theory of emotions - people appraise environment in different ways which determines the emotions they experience, contacting, distancing, attack, rejection emotions, anger: produced by appraisals of injustice, unfair outcomes, or goal blockage; anxiety and fear: center on appraisals of threat; anxiety primarily future oriented, risk taking influenced by anxiety and fear; hope and enthusiasm: people experience multiple positive emotions at the same time; contempt and disgust: aversion emotions, contempt is elecited by perceptions that others are inferior, disgust due to percieved moral purity violation; moral emotions have individual and group effect

Vasilpoulos et al.

emotions: threats become tools for elites and far-right parties to stoke anxiety, voters who experience anxiety less likely to be attracted to far right, support for FN should be highest among those who experienced high levels of anger

Vasilpoulus study

two waves of 2017 french election study, level of anxiety, anger and fear measured three times, authoritarianism measured using child-rearing scale, ideology measured on left-right scale

Vasilpoulus results

anger and fear are common but anger has far stronger and positive impact on support for FN, anxiety weakens support for far-right votings, when fear ascends, citizens rely less on disposition

Baekgaard et al.

motivated reasoning: study of danish politicians, motivations influence how people reason information, adding evidence (5 pieces) has no positive impact on the extent to which a large group of politicians interprets information correctly

Baekgaard study

danish politicians tested by presnting with quantitive information on the performance of two supploers of public services and asking them to assess which organization performs best, information provided is cognitively demanding but unambigous in the sense that one intepretation of information is correct, third experiment: adding more evidence

Baekgaard results

interpretation of unambigous information in political decision making is not a neautral process, adding evidence has no positive impact on extent to which participants interprets information, increasing divergence when amount of information increases, evidence reinforces importance of various political beliefs

Guay & Johnston

motivated reasoning: asymmetry hypothesis, right wing citizens have greater needs for certainty, distinguishing pmr requires direct examination of the way citizens process new information, alt hypothesis: pmr basis from psychological investment in political identity

Guay & Johnston study

2085 adults 18 and older to participate in 15 min survey one clearly correct interpretation of information, Americans, study 2 judging quality of a research design

Guay & Johnston results

no evidence of asymmetry hypothesis, conservatives have higher need for closure

Druckman & McGrath

motivated reasoning: accuracy and directional motivations, bayesian framework for incorporating new info into prior beliefs, observer effect - if a speaker possess knowledge and has contrary interests the observer should do the opposite of the speaker

Bilewicz & Sorall

hate and violence: social networks have banned hate speech as direct consequence of proliferation of hate speech amongst populist politicians, hate speech as powerful means of political mobilization, particulary in case of violent and illegal forms of collective action, conservative ideology motivated by beliefs about competitiveness of social world leads to justifying inequalities

Drury et al.

hate and violence: england riots, significant varitaion, different degress of commitment to racism among participants, issue with swift policy responses which are based on assumptoons about events and participants

Rekker & Spanje

hate and violence: fundamentals of liberal democracy as protections of minorities and freedom of speech, some may view hate speech trials as politically motivated

Bakker and Lelkes

top down and bottom up ideology

Freeder et al.

what goes with what, inconsistent with folk theory of democracy

Kustov et al.

immigration attitudes are remarkably stable

Boston et al.

correlation between TIPI and american politicial ideology, six waves, openess connected to political views

Fatke

five factor model across 21 countries, personality does not affect politics in every country the same way

Bakker et al.

affect, arousal and valence, effect of attitude extremity

redlawsk and matters

overview of emotions

Vasipoulos

anger and fear are common but anger has far stronger and positive impact on support for FN, anxiety weakens support for far-right votings

Baekgaard et al.

Danish politicians motivated reasoning, more evidence (5) has no positive impact on ability to interpret information

Guay and Johnston

ideological asymmetry, right-wing citizens have greater need for certainty

Druckman & McGrath

accuracy and directional motivations, bayesian framework for incorporating new info into prior beliefs

Bilewicz and Sorall

hate speech as powerful means of political mobilization

Drury et al.

issue with swift policy responses which are based on assumptoons about events and participants

Rekker and Spanje

fundamentals of liberal democracy as protections of minorities and freedom of speech, some may view hate speech trials as politically motivated