Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Negative Affective Language In Politics, Stephen M. Utych
Negative Affective Language In Politics, Stephen M. Utych
Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations
How do the words we use to talk about politics influence political attitudes and evaluations? I focus specifically on negative affective language; words which individuals have pre-existing negative reactions towards. Considering the Affect Infusion Model (AIM), processing style influences how individuals use affect when making decisions. The impact of affective language depends upon the complexity of the decision. In simpler processing tasks, individuals will use affect as a heuristic. This causes a misattribution of generalized negative affect onto a political target, leading to harsher evaluations. When a decision is complex, affective language influences how new information is stored in memory, …