Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Slovakia
Proliferation of populist policies and strengthening of political populism in several liberal democracies has been accompanied by campaigns full of public anger, anxiety and fear. Our research contributes to understanding how negative emotions shape selected political attitudes. We designed an exper...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Slovak Academy of Sciences, Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences
2019-04-01
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| Series: | Studia Psychologica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.studiapsychologica.com/uploads/Babos_SP_1_vol.61_2019_pp.42-55.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818311089638604800 |
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| author | Pavol Baboš Aneta Világi Petra Soláriková |
| author_facet | Pavol Baboš Aneta Világi Petra Soláriková |
| author_sort | Pavol Baboš |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Proliferation of populist policies and strengthening of political populism in several liberal democracies has been accompanied by campaigns full of public anger, anxiety and fear. Our research contributes to understanding how negative emotions shape selected political attitudes. We designed an experiment with 72 participants randomly assigned to three groups. The aim was to impose anxiety by using a stimulus that is incidental, i.e. having unrelated content to the attitudes under study. In addition to self-reported emotional state measured by post-test survey, we also measured the heart rate activity. Regarding political attitudes, next to attitudes towards immigrants we measured attitudes towards marijuana decriminalization as well. Findings indicate that while imposed anxiety leads to more negative attitudes towards immigrants, there seems to be no such effect on attitudes towards marijuana. We explain the difference by presence/absence of the in-group/out-group division in the types of political attitudes under study. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T07:56:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-406c77f7d98f4960ba34632378560b57 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0039-3320 2585-8815 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T07:56:25Z |
| publishDate | 2019-04-01 |
| publisher | Slovak Academy of Sciences, Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Studia Psychologica |
| spelling | doaj.art-406c77f7d98f4960ba34632378560b572022-12-21T23:54:31ZengSlovak Academy of Sciences, Centre of Social and Psychological SciencesStudia Psychologica0039-33202585-88152019-04-01611425510.21909/sp.2019.01.771Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from SlovakiaPavol Baboš0Aneta Világi1Petra Soláriková2Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak RepublicDepartment of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak RepublicDepartment of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak RepublicProliferation of populist policies and strengthening of political populism in several liberal democracies has been accompanied by campaigns full of public anger, anxiety and fear. Our research contributes to understanding how negative emotions shape selected political attitudes. We designed an experiment with 72 participants randomly assigned to three groups. The aim was to impose anxiety by using a stimulus that is incidental, i.e. having unrelated content to the attitudes under study. In addition to self-reported emotional state measured by post-test survey, we also measured the heart rate activity. Regarding political attitudes, next to attitudes towards immigrants we measured attitudes towards marijuana decriminalization as well. Findings indicate that while imposed anxiety leads to more negative attitudes towards immigrants, there seems to be no such effect on attitudes towards marijuana. We explain the difference by presence/absence of the in-group/out-group division in the types of political attitudes under study.http://www.studiapsychologica.com/uploads/Babos_SP_1_vol.61_2019_pp.42-55.pdfanxietyimmigrationattitude changeattitude formation |
| spellingShingle | Pavol Baboš Aneta Világi Petra Soláriková Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Slovakia Studia Psychologica anxiety immigration attitude change attitude formation |
| title | Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Slovakia |
| title_full | Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Slovakia |
| title_fullStr | Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Slovakia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Slovakia |
| title_short | Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Slovakia |
| title_sort | role of anxiety in radicalizing political attitudes experimental evidence from slovakia |
| topic | anxiety immigration attitude change attitude formation |
| url | http://www.studiapsychologica.com/uploads/Babos_SP_1_vol.61_2019_pp.42-55.pdf |
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