Dual Affective Subsystems Disposition System Surveillance System Disposition System Disposition system is primarily responsible for managing reliance on habits, previously learned strategies. Located in the limbic region of the brain Engages procedural memory and the sensory systems Pathways to the areas of the brain Input and output connections to the various cortex regions of the brain Its function is essentially to the enaction of learned behaviour and to the acquisition of new behaviour routines. Three broad categories of information Disposition System First, any behaviour, like the action of our sign-waving enthusiast, requires extensive sequences of action and action branching of the already learned habits. The second requirement is internal feedback from the body--- a contemporary report of the physical and psychic demands for successful execution. The third requirement is external feedback---information of the detailed context so that the anticipated sequence can be matched and adjusted to the specific immediate circumstances. The disposition system is a comparing system. It obtains: Somatosensory information (information about the body, its position, and status) Sensory data (information about the environment) Plans (from the prefrontal cortex, where procedural memories are located) Disposition System Integrating somatosensory information, sensory data and plans flows provides the basis for a simple fashion: If the plan is being executed in an expected and successful fashion, it is a match ; if the plan is failing, then it is a mismatch . Disposition System Functional process of the disposition system: Disposition System Relationship of the disposition system to conscious awareness The state of the conscious awareness is not always the same Second, the disposition system also influences the enaction of those recurring learned routines that make up our repertoire of habits. Third, the disposition system receives feedback on the success or failure of the ongoing sequence of actions that make up a habit. Finally, the disposition system has an important feedback linkage so that what is learned from the execution of this plan, this time, can be retained in procedural memory. Insofar as the behaviour in question falls within the realm of learned behaviours, the disposition system is likely to play a major role in the initiation, adaptation, and control of the plan of action. Moreover, reliance on habits, most of which are developed without explicit reasoning, provides efficient and therefore reasonable solutions to the recurring tasks of daily life. Disposition System It has been common practiced to divided theories of political behaviour into two classesone that asserts the primacy of values and the other that asserts the primacy of interests (Chong 2000; Levine and Campbell 1972). Disposition System Political habits If the only emotional subsystem available to people is the disposition system, most political behaviour would be driven by the political habits people required early in life. If human were guided only by the habituated, long-term forces of inculcated partisanship, ideology, and interest-group identity, then the outcome of political elections could be fully explicable by calculating the degree of mobilizations of competing groups. Surveillance System Surveillance system is primarily responsible for identifying novel and threatening circumstance, precisely the circumstance in which reliance on habit would be ill advised, and for initiating a shift to reasoned consideration. The surveillance function monitors the environment for novel and threatening stimuli. It serves to interrupt habitual routine and engage thought. It is very fast-cycling because of its obvious importance for evolutionary emotional survival. Surveillance System Phycologists have found that negative events capture our attention far more than do positive outcomes (Derryberry 1991; May, Kane, and Hasher 1995; Pratto and John 1991). To address the problem of threat, there are two different emotional systems, the fight and flight and the surveillance systems. Surveillance System The diagram shows a schematic representation of the surveillance system. The surveillance system enhances cognitive function by surveying the environment to assess its safety. The principal features of the surveillance system are important to conscious awareness, cognitive functions generally, and behaviour, as well as to explaining the modulation of anxiety. The principal hypothesis of the theory of Affective Intelligence is that the surveillance system tells people when they can safely rely on the unreflective abilities of the disposition system to initiate and manage the regular habits of our lives. Surveillance System The surveillance system sheds new light on the use of political judgment. It explains when people rely on previously learned beliefs and habits and when they set these aside. It explains when and why people are motivated to learn and etc. What is more, the surveillance system and its associated effects makes possible the politics of persuasion. Taken together the disposition and surveillance systems have distinct yet interactive roles in enabling us to meet the challenging and choices that life present. Dual Affective Subsystems Emotion and Political Judgement Modern democracy depends on citizens making reasoned judgements about the political word around them. Affective Intelligence model: 2 modes for making political choices: Reliance on habitual dispositions. Reasoned reconsideration: citizens deviate from habitual judgements when they are emotionally engaged. Emotion and Political Judgement Anxiety can move people to pay more attention to politics and to acquire new and more accurate information. Theory of affective intelligence: Emotional engagement will motivate people toward making more deeply reasoned decisions about politics than those who remain dispassionate (Marcus, Neuman, MacKuen). Affective Intelligence and Free Trade Dominance of free market principles in trade policy since the end of WWII. North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and economic restructuring of the 1980s and 1990s: political controversy and new coalitions. Clinton supported NAFTA. Democratic partys base faced the choice of remaining faithful to long-standing party or striking off in a new direction. Pat Buchanans populist stance. Affective Intelligence and Free Trade People uneasy with the current state of affairs were both more enthusiastic and more anxious about proposals for radical change. Enthusiasm implements peoples disposition while anxiety does not. The two emotional responses transfer along separate channels into candidate support. Affective Intelligence and Free Trade Emotional reactions to issues translate into emotions about candidates: Enthusiasm drives the disposition channel. Anxiety about candidates and issues are linked together, but they are independent of the disposition channel. Anxiety reflects the surveillance system that kicks in when people must reconsider standard ways of thinking things, confront unusual and novel threats. Those who have been undisturbed over time and will keep relying on standard ways of evaluating the candidate. Affective Intelligence and Free Trade Buchanan preference Affective Intelligence and Free Trade Candidate anxiety works as a marker that signals people to weigh new information. Rather the disturbed than the complacent who consciously reconsider their candidate preference in the light of novel information, doing extra work and setting aside habits demands (Marcus, Neuman, MacKeuan). Affective Intelligence and the Gulf War War presents a very different sort of political stimulus than regular political events such as typical campaigning. Kinder & DAmbrosio analysed how US public responded to Persian Gulf War. Emotional reactions produced feelings directly associated with peoples judgements about the outcome of the war, several war policies and the performance of President Bush. Affective Intelligence and the Gulf War Focus on how people process information and how they use specific emotions to generate political views. Rational political choice: people who observed the success of the war effort should be willing to credit Bush and the policy of intervention. Resistance: people rationalise prior beliefs and reluctant to change political judgements even in the face of contrary evidence. Affective Intelligence and the Gulf War Affective Intelligence predictions: People who experienced anxiety during the war would think more deeply about policies and president leadership. People positively engaged would not necessarily change their political judgements to fit the new evidence. Affective Intelligence and the Gulf War Kinder & DAmbrosio analysis of reactions to the Gulf War indicates that mainly under the stimulus of war-driven anxiety people reassessed their original views of the war and of the Bush presidency. Affective Intelligence and voting judgments Campaigns ( ) Do people change their manner of making decisions when they are anxious about the political leader they are inclined to support? Main goal: confirm that anxiety about leadership leads people to abandon partisanship and reassess the competing candidates personal qualities and policy proposals. Affective Intelligence and voting judgments Campaigns ( ) Affective Intelligence and voting judgments ( ) Affective Intelligence and voting judgments Campaigns ( ) References G. Markus, W Russell Neuman and M. MacKuen, Affective Intelligence and Political Judgement. (University of Chicago Press, 2000) chaps 2, 4 and 6.