by Johanna Hornung and Nils C. Bandelow
How do individuals form policy preferences? In our recent article, published in Policy & Politics, we argue that individuals’ identification with social groups, and the emotions associated with these groups, can explain why people support certain policies to address societal problems. Specifically, we investigate this connection using two examples from one of the most complex problems of our time: climate change.
Climate change puts pressure on governments around the world. There are multiple public policies that aim to reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions, such as promoting meatless nutrition or reducing the use of individual cars for transport. These policies not only need the approval of political elites but must be supported by people and their individual preferences.
In public policy research, insights from social psychology are drawn on, because they offer valuable insights into how individuals think and behave. Explanations for preferences within this field primarily focus on cognitive aspects, such as social group affiliations and emotions experienced. Building on this strand of research, we propose that individuals’ policy preferences are influenced by the social groups they identify with, and the emotions they associate with their own groups and others. More specifically, individuals are likely to support policies aligned with the values and norms of their social group, especially if they harbour strong negative emotions toward opposing groups. For instance, when considering preferences towards meatless diets, we expect individuals who identify as vegetarians to be more supportive of such policies, particularly if they feel strong negative emotions (such as anger) towards non-vegetarians. Similarly, in the context of individual car use, those who own a car are expected to favour policies promoting individual car use as a means of transport, especially if they feel strong negative emotions towards people who do not drive cars.
To test our hypotheses, we conducted a survey of approximately 2,000 individuals representative of the German population. The questionnaire asked respondents which form of mobility or nutrition diet, respectively, should be politically promoted, with individual car use and meatless nutrition among the options. Additionally, we collected data on individual characteristics such as age, gender, identification with political parties and religion, and whether individuals identify themselves more with metropolitan, regional, or provincial areas. Furthermore, we asked how frequently they feel anger towards people who have different views and habits as regards their own responses on these two issues.
The results support the claim that individual identification with social groups significantly influences the support for policies that are in favour of the respective social group (vegetarian diet or driving an individual car use). However, it is only in food policy that we find, firstly, vegetarians to more frequently feel anger towards people with different dietary habits and, secondly, this experience of anger influencing their preference for the political promotion of meatless nutrition.
In this way, our article fills a gap in the research on how individual identification with social groups is linked to emotions related to policies and policy preferences. Our results have implications for the study of social groups and emotions and for understanding and overcoming conflicts between people with different identities and emotions.
You can read the original research in Policy & Politics at
Hornung, J., & Bandelow, N. C. (2024). Social identities, emotions and policy preferences. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2024) from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000036
If you enjoyed this blog post, you may also be interested to read:
Durnová, A. (2022). Making interpretive policy analysis critical and societally relevant: emotions, ethnography and language. Policy & Politics, 50(1), 43-58 from https://doi.org/10.1332/030557321X16129850569011
Kuhlmann, J., & Starke, P. (2024). The politics of anger: emotional appraisal mechanisms and the French pension reform protests. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2024) from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000027
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