Anger (Mis)Management? Racial Differences in the Emotional Foundations of Political Action.

Race & black politics;Political behavior;Emotions and politics;African-American Studies;Political Science;Psychology;Social Sciences;Public Policy and Political Science

Phoenix, Davin L.Burns, Nancy E. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Race & black politics;    Political behavior;    Emotions and politics;    African-American Studies;    Political Science;    Psychology;    Social Sciences;    Public Policy and Political Science;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/111543/dphoenix_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Messaging that communicates policy threats—signals of developments in the political environment that will restrict or deny a valued political good—are a constant element of American discourse. Extant scholarship asserts such messaging propels people to greater political action by making them angry over the prospect of loss. Although this notion makes intuitive sense and has empirical backing, I argue policy threat cues do not effectively stimulate political action across all groups. Existing work exploring the linkage of emotion and behavior has not fully contended with the influence of race in determining individuals’ responses to cues of policy threat. This project aims to fill what I argue is a gap in the literature. I use affective intelligence and cognitive appraisal theories as frameworks for understanding how receipt of varying cues can engender distinct affective and behavioral responses. Integrating this literature with the work on black attitudes, I theorize that the respective interpretative lenses employed by blacks and whites to inform their broader perceptions of the political system—and their respective roles within it—systematically constrain their emotional responses to policy threat cues.The ideological narratives shaping blacks’ general worldview breed an overarching resignation regarding the political system’s responsiveness to blacks’ collective demands. This resignation can either inhibit the arousal of anger among blacks receiving policy threat cues, or it can override the mobilizing effects of anger by signaling to the threat cue recipient the ineffectiveness of his potential action. Whether anger’s emergence is inhibited among blacks, or anger’s positive effect on action after emergence is disrupted, the subsequent effect is the same. African Americans will not take up greater action in response to the policy threat, creating a critical participation disparity relative to whites.Two empirical studies, examining nationally representative survey data and a locally conducted survey experiment, suggest multiples pathways through which race constrains the translation of anger to political action in response to policy threat cues. These studies aid the construction of a theory of racialized emotional and behavioral responses to policy cues. This theory advances scholarly and practical understanding of race, emotion, communication and participation.