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We advocate for an experimental approach to the study of personality and politics. In particular, we propose an "interactionist" model of political behavior in which the cognitive and behavioral effects of dispositional variables are qualified by experimentally induced contexts. Our operating assumption is that the political effects of personality do not occur in a contextual vacuum, but instead are magnified by the presence of key precipitating or "activating" features of the political environment. We illustrate the approach with four experimental studies of authoritarianism. Results indicate that the effects of authoritarianism depend critically on the presence of situationally induced threat. More generally, we argue that interactions between personality variables and experimental treatments can lead to valuable insights about when and why personality makes a meaningful contribution to public opinion and political behavior. Finally, we close with a critique of the traditional skepticism toward experimentation in political science, and suggest that external validity is an overrated virtue when the research goal is the development of theory rather than the description of "real-world" phenomena.

The recording of event‐related potentials (ERPs) in the brain has allowed for a better understanding of human sensory and cognitive processing. This technique may also prove useful in studying implicit social attitudes and their effects on information processing. Here, ERPs were used in a study of "hot cognition" in the context of political concepts. Hot cognition, as applied to the political domain, posits that all sociopolitical concepts that have been evaluated in the past are affectively charged, and that this affective charge is automatically activated from long‐term memory within milliseconds of presentation of the political stimulus. During an evaluative priming task, ERP recordings showed that affectively incongruent prime/target pairs elicited an enhanced negativity with a peak latency of about 400 milliseconds relative to affectively congruent prime/target pairs. These differences suggest that automatic, implicit evaluations were made in response to strongly positive and negative political stimuli, and that these evaluations affected the subsequent processing of a high‐valence adjective. Therefore, it appears that the emotional valence of a political prime is stored along with the concept itself, and that an affective response becomes active upon mere exposure to the political stimulus.

The recording of event-related potentials (ERPs) in the brain has allowed for a better understanding of human sensory & cognitive processing. This technique may also prove useful in studying implicit social attitudes & their effects on information processing. Here, ERPs were used in a study of "hot cognition" in the context of political concepts. Hot cognition, as applied to the political domain, posits that all sociopolitical concepts that have been evaluated in the past are affectively charged, & that this affective charge is automatically activated from long-term memory within milliseconds of presentation of the political stimulus. During an evaluative priming task, ERP recordings showed that affectively incongruent prime/target pairs elicited an enhanced negativity with a peak latency of about 400 milliseconds relative to affectively congruent prime/target pairs. These differences suggest that automatic, implicit evaluations were made in response to strongly positive & negative political stimuli, & that these evaluations affected the subsequent processing of a high-valence adjective. Therefore, it appears that the emotional valence of a political prime is stored along with the concept itself, & that an affective response becomes active upon mere exposure to the political stimulus. 5 Figures, 1 Appendix, 49 References. Adapted from the source document.

The recording of event-related potentials (ERPs) in the brain has allowed for a better understanding of human sensory and cognitive processing. This technique may also prove useful in studying implicit social attitudes and their effects on information processing. Here, ERPs were used in a study of "hot cognition" in the context of political concepts. Hot cognition, as applied to the political domain, posits that all sociopolitical concepts that have been evaluated in the past are affectively charged, and that this affective charge is automatically activated from long-term memory within milliseconds of presentation of the political stimulus. During an evaluative priming task, ERP recordings showed that affectively incongruent prime/target pairs elicited an enhanced negativity with a peak latency of about 400 milliseconds relative to affectively congruent prime/target pairs. These differences suggest that automatic, implicit evaluations were made in response to strongly positive and negative political stimuli, and that these evaluations affected the subsequent processing of a high-valence adjective. Therefore, it appears that the emotional valence of a political prime is stored along with the concept itself, and that an affective response becomes active upon mere exposure to the political stimulus. (Original abstract)

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Acknowledgments -- I Interdisciplinary Cross-Fertilization -- I. An Overview of the Field of Political Psychology -- 2. The Poly-Psy Relationship: Three Phases of a Long Affair -- 3. Psychohistory and Political Psychology: A Comparative Analysis -- II Attitudes and Behavior -- 4. Political Perception -- 5. Symbolic Politics: A Socio-Psychological Theory -- 6. Nonverbal Behavior and Leadership: Emotion and Cognition in Political Information Processing -- 7. The Psychology of Group Conflict and the Dynamics of Oppression: A Social Dominance Perspective -- III Information Processing and Cognition -- 8. Inside the Mental Voting Booth: An Impression-Driven Process Model of Candidate Evaluation -- 9. Political Information Processing -- 10. Affect and Political Judgment -- IV Decision Making and Choice -- 11. Information and Electoral Attitudes: A Case of Judgment Under Uncertainty -- 12. The Drunkard's Search -- 13. Decision Making in Presidential Primaries -- 14. Cognitive Structural Analysis of Political Rhetoric: Methodological and Theoretical Issues -- References -- Index -- Contributors