CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Batricevic, Nemanja |
|---|---|
| Title | Emotional Basis of Political Information Processing in Divided Societies: On the Distinct Role of Anxiety and Enthusiasm |
| Summary | This thesis deals with the emotional basis of political information processing in ethnically divided societies. I investigate the effects of anxiety and enthusiasm on citizens’ desire to seek political information, potential tendencies towards selective exposure and different processing styles. My main hypothesis, in contrast to Affective Intelligence theory, states that in the time of uncertainty people living in such societies will seek to isolate themselves from out-group contact and try to restore a sense of security by collecting information from the sources more similar to them. In essence, I claim that anxiety will induce information seeking that is marked by selectivity which will further prevent people from becoming “more rational”. I test my hypotheses in Montenegro using an experimental method. One hundred twenty political science students participated in a computer-based experiment designed using Dynamic Process Tracing Environment platform. Results show that people in the state of anxiety tend to seek for more political information. Application of the accession priority measure revealed some patterns of in-group bias among students in anxiety condition. On the other hand, a second measure of selectivity- information attentiveness – provided almost no evidence of selectivity. Results also show unexpected differences between ethnic groups in post-treatment behavior, as well as traces of cognitive biases towards threatening stimuli among anxious subjects. |
| Supervisor | Levente Littvay |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/batricevic_nemanja.pdf |
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