Affect and Emotion

It is clear that no account of the psychology of politics would be remotely complete without an account of the role that emotion—or “affect” as it is sometimes called—plays within it. Many phenomena in politics involve emotion and feelings rather than just the “cold” kind of information-processing we examined in the previous chapter; virtually all political concepts are charged with emotion, either positive or negative, something that many psychologists refer to as “hot cognitions.” ¹ Political stimuli often provoke strong emotions, feelings such as liking, dislike, happiness, sadness, anger, guilt, gratitude, disgust, revenge, joy, insecurity, fear, anxiety, and so on.