Blogs >> Miscellaneous >>
Psych of Polity
We now know that individual differences affect how people deal with the flow of politi-cal information. For more than a half century, the scientific literature has confirmed dra-matic heterogeneity in the public: some people pay a lot of attention to the political world and understand a great deal while others do not; some people readily identify their own interests and their preferences for government policy while other do not; some people develop psychological identifications with political parties, political actors, ideological labels and other political symbols while others do not; and so forth. All of these factors affect the quality of citizenship and the nature of contemporary democracy.
But a more fundamental analytic exists, one that is largely exogenous to the political sys-tem, and that is personality. People obviously differ in their individual personalities and how they deal with the world in general. It is expected that personality factors might well shape how people handle politics.
The good news is that personality psychologists have, in the last generation, developed robust empirical representations of personality that lend themselves to the study of poli-tics. The first, the "Need for Cognition" assesses the inclination and ability of individuals to do cognitive work. This personality trait is espe-cially relevant for affective intelligence.
Personality and Citizenship -
Affective Intelligence Theory suggests two implications for how political judgment oper-ates in emotional terms. The first is now well known. The theory predicts that those expe-riencing aversion to the news will be less likely to seek more information while those whose anxiety emotions start ringing will stop and search for more information. The second, less widely tested, implication of an emotional response is that the type of citizenship that people choose is shaped by their emotional state. People struck by aversion are likely to opt for a more "partisan" citizenship that focuses on maintaining its focus and defending itself from alternative arguments. In contrast, people whose anxiety system is activated will become more "deliberative."
|
|
