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Emotion in politics : disgust and empathy in a mediating model of Australian political ideology

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posted on 2023-05-27, 11:12 authored by Walker, AR
Previous research depicting the relationship between disgust sensitivity (DS) and political ideologies (PI) has found dissimilar results (i.e. Brenner & Inbar, 2014; as compared to Inbar, Pizarro, & Bloom, 2009). Due to the discrepancy, the current study aims to determine whether analysing affective empathy (AE) and cognitive empathy (CE) as mediators of the relationship, will enhance the ability to predict PI from DS scores. The study employed a sample of 170 psychology undergraduates, with a mean age of 23.48 years (SD = 8.49), 81% of which were female. Constructs were measured using the Disgust Scale-Revised, Basic Empathy Scale ‚Äö- Adults, and the Australian Political Ideology Scale (developed as part of the study). Results indicate the possibility of an increasingly complex relationship between DS and PI, as a partial-mediation effect of AE was found, b = 0.24, 95�a CI [ .004, .760], representing a small completely standardised effect of 0.31, 95�a CI [.001, .0952]. No mediation effect was found for CE, b = -0.03, 95�a CI [ -.31, .19], with a negligible completely standardised effect, -0.003, 95�a CI [-.041, .024]. This may be evidence of a multifaceted relation between DS and PI, depicting an emotion-based, rather than cognition-based relation.

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