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The Cognitive–Affective Structure of Political Ideologies

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Emotion in Group Decision and Negotiation

Part of the book series: Advances in Group Decision and Negotiation ((AGDN,volume 7))

Abstract

This chapter displays the structure of ideologies using a new technique called cognitive–affective mapping, portraying the cognitive and emotional relations in both left-wing and right-wing ideologies. The technique is expanded to allow multimodal representations such as pictures and sounds in addition to verbal concepts, with Nazi ideology as an illustration. The cognitive–affective maps are based on a theory of emotional coherence that can explain why people are attracted to various ideologies. The psychological theory of emotional coherence meshes well with social mechanisms of cognitive and emotional transfer that can explain how ideologies spread through groups of individuals.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. I am grateful to an anonymous referee for comments and to Tobias Schröder and Thomas Homer-Dixon for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philosophy Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Paul Thagard

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  1. Paul Thagard
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Correspondence to Paul Thagard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Bilyana Martinovsky

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Thagard, P. (2015). The Cognitive–Affective Structure of Political Ideologies. In: Martinovsky, B. (eds) Emotion in Group Decision and Negotiation. Advances in Group Decision and Negotiation, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9963-8_3

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