scholarly journals Political Identity and Perceived Threat Predict Negative Perceptions of Outgroup Facial Expressions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruby Basyouni ◽  
Nicholas Harp ◽  
Ingrid Johnsen Haas ◽  
Maital Neta

Social group identity plays a central role in political polarization and inter-party conflict. Here, we use ambiguously valenced faces to measure affective biases in the processing of political in and outgroup faces and explore predictors of negativity toward political outgroups. Participants identifying as Democrats and Republicans categorized happy, angry, and surprised faces as positive or negative. Whereas happy and angry faces convey positive and negative valence respectively, surprised faces are ambiguous in that they readily convey positive and negative valence. Thus, surprise is a useful tool for characterizing bias. Face stimuli were assigned to the participants’ political in or outgroup, or a third group with an unspecified affiliation (baseline). Participants also completed measures of strength of political identification and perceived outgroup threat. We found a significant interaction of facial expression and group membership, such that outgroup faces were categorized more negatively than ingroup and baseline, but only for surprise. Strength of identification moderated the relationship between threat and the magnitude of outgroup negativity, such that increased outgroup threat predicted greater negativity towards the outgroup (relative to the ingroup), and this effect was exacerbated by stronger ingroup identification. There was also an interaction of facial expression and political affiliation, with Republicans categorizing surprise more negatively than Democrats across all group conditions. Our findings reinforce the importance of political identity on inter-party affective biases and are consistent with ideological differences in bias. Further, strength of political identification and perceived outgroup threat are established as potential mechanisms underlying political polarization and inter-party conflict.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Pereira ◽  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Harris

Political misinformation, often called “fake news”, represents a threat to our democracies because it impedes citizens from being appropriately informed. Evidence suggests that fake news spreads more rapidly than real news—especially when it contains political content. The present article tests three competing theoretical accounts that have been proposed to explain the rise and spread of political (fake) news: (1) the ideology hypothesis— people prefer news that bolsters their values and worldviews; (2) the confirmation bias hypothesis—people prefer news that fits their pre-existing stereotypical knowledge; and (3) the political identity hypothesis—people prefer news that allows their political in-group to fulfill certain social goals. We conducted three experiments in which American participants read news that concerned behaviors perpetrated by their political in-group or out-group and measured the extent to which they believed the news (Exp. 1, Exp. 2, Exp. 3), and were willing to share the news on social media (Exp. 2 and 3). Results revealed that Democrats and Republicans were both more likely to believe news about the value-upholding behavior of their in-group or the value-undermining behavior of their out-group, supporting a political identity hypothesis. However, although belief was positively correlated with willingness to share on social media in all conditions, we also found that Republicans were more likely to believe and want to share apolitical fake new. We discuss the implications for theoretical explanations of political beliefs and application of these concepts in in polarized political system.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252198919
Author(s):  
Roderik Rekker

People have a tendency to disregard information that contradicts their partisan or ideological identity. This inclination can become especially striking when citizens reject notions that scientists would consider “facts” in the light of overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus. The resulting polarization over science has reached alarming levels in recent years. This theoretical review conceptualizes political polarization over science and argues that it is driven by two interrelated processes. Through psychological science rejection, people can implicitly disregard scientific facts that are inconsistent with their political identity. Alternatively, citizens can engage in ideological science rejection by adhering to a political ideology that explicitly contests science. This contestation can in turn be subdivided into four levels of generalization: An ideology can dispute either specific scientific claims, distinct research fields, science in general, or the entire political system and elite. By proposing this interdisciplinary framework, this article aims to integrate insights from various disciplines.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110215
Author(s):  
Erick G. Chuquichambi Apaza ◽  
Guido B. Corradi ◽  
Enric Munar ◽  
Jaume Rosselló-Mir

Symmetry and contour take part in shaping visual preference. However, less is known about their combined contribution to preference. We examined the hedonic tone and preference triggered by the interaction of symmetry and contour. Symmetric/curved, symmetric/sharp-angled, asymmetric/curved, and asymmetric/sharp-angled stimuli were presented in an implicit and explicit task. The implicit task consisted of an affective stimulus-response compatibility task where participants matched the stimuli with positive and negative valence response cues. The explicit task recorded liking ratings from the same stimuli. We used instructed mindset to induce participants to focus on symmetry or contour in different parts of the experimental session. We found an implicit compatibility of symmetry and curvature with positive hedonic tone. Explicit results showed preference for symmetry and curvature. In both tasks, symmetry and curvature showed a cumulative interaction, with a larger contribution of symmetry to the overall effect. While symmetric and asymmetric stimuli contributed to the implicit positive valence of symmetry, the effect of curvature was mainly caused by inclination toward curved contours rather than rejection of sharp-angled contours. We did not find any correlation between implicit and explicit measures, suggesting that they may involve different cognitive processing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Cheng Kang ◽  
Nan Ye ◽  
Fangwen Zhang ◽  
Yanwen Wu ◽  
Guichun Jin ◽  
...  

Although studies have investigated the influence of the emotionality of primes on the cross-modal affective priming effect, it is unclear whether this effect is due to the contribution of the arousal or the valence of primes. We explored how the valence and arousal of primes influenced the cross-modal affective priming effect. In Experiment 1 we manipulated the valence of primes (positive and negative) that were matched by arousal. In Experiments 2 and 3 we manipulated the arousal of primes under the conditions of positive and negative valence, respectively. Affective words were used as auditory primes and affective faces were used as visual targets in a priming task. The results suggest that the valence of primes modulated the cross-modal affective priming effect but that the arousal of primes did not influence the priming effect. Only when the priming stimuli were positive did the cross-modal affective priming effect occur, but negative primes did not produce a priming effect. In addition, for positive but not negative primes, the arousal of primes facilitated the processing of subsequent targets. Our findings have great significance for understanding the interaction of different modal affective information.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick Gustavo Chuquichambi ◽  
Guido Corradi ◽  
Jaume Rossello ◽  
Enric Munar

Symmetry and contour take part in shaping visual preference. However, less is known about their combined contribution to preference. We examined the hedonic tone and preference triggered by the interaction of symmetry and contour. Symmetric/curved, symmetric/sharp-angled, asymmetric/curved, and asymmetric/sharp-angled stimuli were presented in an implicit and explicit task. The implicit task consisted of an affective stimulus-response compatibility task where participants matched the stimuli with positive and negative valence response cues. The explicit task recorded liking ratings from the same stimuli. We used instructed mindset to induce participants to focus on symmetry or contour in different parts of the experimental session. We found an implicit compatibility of symmetry and curvature with positive hedonic tone. Explicit results showed preference for symmetry and curvature. In both tasks, symmetry and curvature showed a cumulative interaction, with a larger contribution of symmetry to the overall effect. While symmetric and asymmetric stimuli contributed to the implicit positive valence of symmetry, the effect of curvature was mainly caused by inclination toward curved contours rather than rejection of sharp-angled contours. We did not find any correlation between implicit and explicit measures, suggesting that they may involve different cognitive processing.


Author(s):  
Tuuli-Marja Kleiner ◽  
Reinhold Melcher

This study investigates how moral values structure the left/right identification of citizens. Specifically, this chapter reconnoitres how moral attitudes relate to the political fringes on both sides compared to economic attitudes. Using pooled data drawn from the World Value Survey (WVS) and the European Value Survey (EVS), this chapter calculates point-biseral correlation coefficients for 12 European countries at different points in time (1982-2014). The findings indicate that (1) both cultural and economic aspects determine mass political identification, (2) the significance of cultural aspects seems higher in traditional countries, (3) all influences remain largely stable over time. In addition, (4) this chapter identifies an unexpected pattern: while the economic dimension structures the political realm quite evenly, moral orientations seem to be divided into the ‘moral universalists' on the left pole and the ‘moral conservatives', who consider themselves as either moderate or rightist.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 717-733
Author(s):  
Jennifer Brannon Barhorst ◽  
Alan Wilson ◽  
Graeme James McLean ◽  
Joshua Brooks

Purpose It has now become a normal part of the consumption journey for consumers to share their positive and negative service encounters with firms on microblogs such as Twitter. There is, however, a limited amount of research on service encounter microblog word of mouth (SEMWOM) and its impact on firm reputation from a receiver’s perspective. This study aims to understand the comparative effects of positive and negative valence SEMWOM on receivers’ perceptions of firms’ reputations and the factors that are particularly salient to receivers’ perceptions of firm reputation upon exposure to SEMWOM. Design/methodology/approach An experiment exposed 372 Twitter users to positive and negative valence SEMWOM. To determine whether changes in perception of firm reputation occurred on exposure to both positive and negative valence SEMWOM, participants’ perceptions of a range of US airlines were measured before and after exposure to the SEMWOM. To confirm the factors that influence the perception of reputation on such exposure, six structural equation models were created to determine the comparative effects of positive and negative valence SEMWOM among three electronic WOM media as follows: video, photo and text. Findings Both positive and negative valence SEMWOM affect receivers’ perceptions of airlines’ reputations on exposure. Furthermore, the factors that influence perceptions of reputation on exposure to SEMWOM vary depending on valence and type of media contained in a tweet. Originality/value Although consumers now routinely share their positive and negative service encounters with brands on microblogs, scant research has examined receivers of positive and negative valence SEMWOM, important actors in the microblog domain. This study addresses this research gap by empirically investigating the impact of both positive and negative valence SEMWOM on receivers’ perceptions of firm reputation upon exposure to it.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 771-783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo C. Medeiros ◽  
A. John Rush ◽  
Manish Jha ◽  
Thomas Carmody ◽  
Jennifer L. Furman ◽  
...  

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