How do affective and motivational states influence the stability of political ideology?

This was the 3000-word essay for UCL course PSYC0162 Social Cognition, Affect and Motivation directed by Prof Ana Guinote in 2021. Distinction achieved (76/100).

Over the past few decades, research on political ideology has focused heavily on personality traits and genetics. However, this risks portraying ideology as predetermined and stable throughout life. As polarization worldwide continues to increase domestic conflicts and global insecurity, the alterable aspects of ideological formation warrant more attention.

Building on prior work, this study conceptualizes political ideology as having cognitive, affective, and motivational properties. Compared to the more rational cognitive processes, the affective and motivational components involve arousal and sensitivity to contextual stimuli. As such, this study examines how two closely related stimuli-sensitive states - affect and motivation - can influence political ideology.

Affect refers to a broad range of valenced feeling states including emotions and moods. Motivation denotes the processes underlying effort toward goals. The central premise is that ideology forms partly through how individuals respond affectively to their environments.

There appear to be two potential pathways for affective and motivational states to impact ideology. First, affect as a feeling state may directly alter ideological flexibility by changing the scope and focus of information processing. Second, specific emotions and moods could stimulate motivations that either reinforce or reshape one’s ideology based on epistemic and existential needs.