Political Psychology · 2008 · 570 citations · 47 references
Social SciencesPolitical SciencePsychologyPolitical BehaviorPolitical ParticipationPublic OpinionMedia EffectsPolitical PersuasionCampaign Effects On Political KnowledgeCampaign ExposureCampaign Information EffectsEmotionsPolitical Information ExposurePolitical Information ProcessingPolitical Information SeekingRealistic Threat
The study investigates how emotions, particularly anger and anxiety, mediate the effect of political threats on citizens’ information seeking and learning, hypothesizing that anxiety uniquely enhances both the quantity and quality of political information acquisition. The authors conducted two experiments—one inducing emotions directly to compare self‑reported attention with actual information seeking, and another exposing participants to realistic political threats to observe how induced emotions affect information seeking and learning. The results show that anger reduces overall information seeking, whereas anxiety increases both information seeking and learning.
In this study we explore the mediating role of emotions in the process of becoming a politically informed citizen. Contrary to previous studies, we expect that anger and anxiety will have much different effects on this process. We suspect the role of anxiety is somewhat unique even among negative emotions as mediator of the causal effect of political threats on information seeking and learning. In addition, we speculate that anxiety should improve the quality of information seeking, not just its quantity. In one experiment, we induce emotions directly and find that while anger, enthusiasm, and anxiety can lead people to claim they will pay attention to the campaign, anger actually depresses total information seeking. In a second experiment, we examine the impact of realistic political threats and find that exposure triggers several emotions but that only anxiety boosts information seeking and learning.
47