The effect of affect: How affective style determines attitudes towards the EU

Julie H Nielsen

European Union Politics, 2018, vol. 19, issue 1, 75-96

Abstract: Research shows that affective style (i.e. our individual ways of responding to emotions) matters for social behaviour. This article explores how affective style, as a new key predictor, explains attitudes towards the European Union, encompassing the feeling of internal efficacy towards the EU and trust in the EU. The study relies on survey data from Denmark (2014). The article concludes that the affective styles of tolerating, concealing and adjusting all significantly predict EU attitudes, albeit in different ways. Adjusting is positively associated with EU attitudes, while tolerating and concealing are negatively related to EU attitudes. Mediation analysis shows that most of personality's effect is not mediated by affective style. Hence, most of the effect of affective style is not merely a transmission of prior personality effect.

Keywords: Affective style; Big Five Personality traits; Euroscepticism; EU attitudes; mediation analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:19:y:2018:i:1:p:75-96

DOI: 10.1177/1465116517741380

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