Psychological Aspects of Political Choices: Focus on Cognition, Decision-Making Styles, and Emotions in Voting Behaviour

Authors

Keywords:

Political psychology, Voting behaviour, Cognition, Decision-making, Emotionality

Abstract

The presented paper focuses on the issue of voting behaviour. It aims to determine the importance of selected cognitive factors, decision-making styles and emotional factors in electoral decision-making and behaviour in voters with different political preferences and voters of specific Slovak political parties. The cognitive style was evaluated using the Cognitive Reflection Test - Version 2. Decision-making styles were explored using the General Decision Making Styles Questionnaire and emotion preferences in information processing were evaluated using the following affective states test. Within the research sample (N = 308, average age 36.2 years), distinct groups of Slovak voters were created: 1. based on parties with different ideological orientations, and 2. based on specific Slovak political parties. The predictive significance of the observed characteristics for the choice of a political subject with a particular ideology and the choice of a specific Slovak political party was explored. All the variables monitored – cognitive style, decision-making style, and emotion preferences in information processing – proved to be significant.

References

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Published

2022-07-01

How to Cite

Viteková, L. and Václaviková, I. (2022) “Psychological Aspects of Political Choices: Focus on Cognition, Decision-Making Styles, and Emotions in Voting Behaviour”, Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, 22(1), pp. 25–47. Available at: https://sjps.fsvucm.sk/index.php/sjps/article/view/235 (Accessed: 2 December 2024).