Speaker Series: Emotions as Moderators of Support for Populism

   21st January 2019 14:00 - 16:00, 21st January 2019 16:00

Rosario Aguilar: Emotions as Moderators of Support for Populism: An Experimental Approach

What is the role of emotions as moderators of support for policy proposals? In specific, this research looks at the effect that emotions have on people’s cognitive process when deciding to support a policy proposal framed in a populist or in a programmatic framework. The emotions of interest are: anxiety, hope, and anger. We approach the study of emotions from an appraisal cognitive approach which not only considers the valence of the emotions but other dimensions to theorize the effect of emotions on judgments. According to the appraisal cognitive approach the dimensions of emotions that impact people’s judgment the most are: certainty, pleasantness, attentional activity, anticipated effort, and attribution. We developed an online experiment to trigger people’s emotions and ask them to evaluate two policy positions on economic development in Hungary. The hypotheses we test are: whether emotions that increase happiness would motivate people to support programmatic policies, while emotions that provoke anger would motivate them to support populist policies that provide a quick closure to political dilemmas.

Venue/Helyszín: MTA Humán Tudományok Kutatóháza PTI Körtárgyaló
1097 Budapest, Tóth Kálmán u. 4. T.2.28. (Building T, Floor 2 28.)

Please, notify Attila Gyula (gyulai.attila@tk.mta.hu), the scientific secretary of the Institute, of your intention to participate.