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The affective style of politics : Evidence from cross-country surveys

Hassing Nielsen, Julie LU and Mønster, Dan (2026) In Political Psychology 47(1).
Abstract
We know that emotions matter in politics but less is known about the role of individual ways of processing and responding to emotions, that is, affective styles. Here we report on two surveys, exploring the relationship between affective style (i.e., the individual propensity to either tolerate, adjust, or conceal emotions) and social and political trust. We base our study on large-n representative survey data from Denmark (N = 1048) and the United States (N = 1046), including the Affective Style Questionnaire (ASQ) battery of questions. We observe strong cross-country similarities that adjusting positively correlates with trust, while concealing negatively correlates with trust. We furthermore show that affective style contributes novel... (More)
We know that emotions matter in politics but less is known about the role of individual ways of processing and responding to emotions, that is, affective styles. Here we report on two surveys, exploring the relationship between affective style (i.e., the individual propensity to either tolerate, adjust, or conceal emotions) and social and political trust. We base our study on large-n representative survey data from Denmark (N = 1048) and the United States (N = 1046), including the Affective Style Questionnaire (ASQ) battery of questions. We observe strong cross-country similarities that adjusting positively correlates with trust, while concealing negatively correlates with trust. We furthermore show that affective style contributes novel explanatory power beyond personality traits. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on the role of emotions in politics, providing salient insights into individual ways of processing and responding to emotions and how that impacts politically salient outcome variables like trust. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Political Psychology
volume
47
issue
1
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
ISSN
0162-895X
DOI
10.1111/pops.70094
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4c1e21e0-f134-47bd-ac48-eaa57074310e
date added to LUP
2026-01-26 21:03:03
date last changed
2026-01-28 15:15:15
@article{4c1e21e0-f134-47bd-ac48-eaa57074310e,
  abstract     = {{We know that emotions matter in politics but less is known about the role of individual ways of processing and responding to emotions, that is, affective styles. Here we report on two surveys, exploring the relationship between affective style (i.e., the individual propensity to either tolerate, adjust, or conceal emotions) and social and political trust. We base our study on large-n representative survey data from Denmark (N = 1048) and the United States (N = 1046), including the Affective Style Questionnaire (ASQ) battery of questions. We observe strong cross-country similarities that adjusting positively correlates with trust, while concealing negatively correlates with trust. We furthermore show that affective style contributes novel explanatory power beyond personality traits. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on the role of emotions in politics, providing salient insights into individual ways of processing and responding to emotions and how that impacts politically salient outcome variables like trust.}},
  author       = {{Hassing Nielsen, Julie and Mønster, Dan}},
  issn         = {{0162-895X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Political Psychology}},
  title        = {{The affective style of politics : Evidence from cross-country surveys}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pops.70094}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/pops.70094}},
  volume       = {{47}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}