The Emotions Of Politics: Liberals May Be More In Touch With Their Feelings

The emotional façade held by many with political positions of power can make taking voting and other serious issues difficult to digest.

Yet recent findings published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin have found that between the too main political sectors, Democrats may be a bit better at dealing with their emotions than their conservative counterparts. In other words, those of the libreal mind are a bit more likely to make decisions based on emotion while the conservatives are more likely to base these decisions on reasoned, weighed thinking. 

Researchers at Tel Aviv University and the Interdiscplinary Center in Herzliya conducted six studies that related current events going on in Israel: here's what they discovered.

"We selected our different scenarios with the aim of tackling both positive and negative developments in intergroup conflicts, eliciting a range of different emotions towards the out-group and the situation, referring to different types of out-groups, and among different in-groups," said lead study author Ruthie Pliskin, in a news release. "Furthermore, we wanted to utilize both contrived, controlled scenarios, and major real-world developments, reflecting real and possible political developments."

All six studies actually suggested that induced emotions are more influentional on those of the liberal persuasion--further examining how political thought and emotions can oftentimes go hand in hand.

"We would expect to find similar results among rightists and leftists in other cultures, including conservatives and liberals in the U.S., because of the cross-cultural similarities in the superstructure of ideology and the needs associated with rightist versus leftist ideology--and because of how these factors relate to emotional processes and their outcomes," concluded Pliskin.

Researchers reiterate that the culmination of studies reveal just how emotions can produce different outcomes for people of different ideologies.

As they were unable to determine the exact circumstances for emotions that motivate changes in both conservative and liberal parties, more research will be needed in the future.