Laura Skillen will be presenting her paper ‘Feels over reals’: political blaming and the connection between emotions and group identity at the “Words, Images and Ideology of Populism 3.0” Conference at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, on 23rd-24th February 2018.
Abstract:
Populist discourses are characterised by blaming of outsider and enemy groups, whether they be immigrants, religious communities, political opponents, or institutions such as the European Union or World Trade Organization. However, what has not been clear to date is whether and why blaming is effective, and whether there is a differentiated effect upon audiences in the political context.
This paper draws from extant theories of blame and responsibility in victimology, social psychology, and legal research to highlight the links between emotion, blame, and group identity. It establishes blame as both a contributor to, and an outcome of, identity, as an individual and as a group member. It draws from a comparison with victim-blaming in cases of sexual assault to highlight the ways in which blame is an essential part of discourse that privileges certain group norms. It examines the association between anger and blame, and anger and shared group values, and illustrates the differentiated effect of blaming on conservative and liberal audiences, with particular reference to heuristic processing and decision-making. It argues that the mediation of blame by spontaneous and differentiated negative-valence emotions enhances group polarisation, in turn enabling populist mobilisation.
This research contributes to an understanding of blaming as a mechanism of political discourse, particularly as it relates to the mobilisation of emotions in the course of identity construction, and bridges work on populism, discourse, and emotions.
Full programme: http://www.unior.it/ricerca/16726/3/words-images-and-ideology-of-populism-30.html