This study looks at partisan voting in light of imagined interactions (IIs). Imagined interactions are a form of daydreaming that allows us to build scripts for use in our interpersonal relationships. II research has generally come from a functionalist perspective, and continues to prove its value in counseling and therapy, as well as to help us to understand intrapersonal communication in general. It has recently been extended into media effects research (i.e., Madison & Porter, 2012, 2014) and with the present study, voting intentions. We ask how respondents who claim to vote for candidates from certain political parties differ from those who do not in terms of the functions of their IIs. We surveyed college students at a prominent southern university (N = 227) and collected data on voting intentions and functions of the respondent IIs. We found that both Republicans and Democrats tend to have fewer self-understanding and rehearsal IIs than those who indicated preference for independent candidates. These findings suggest that voting along party lines may be a heuristic, or “mindless” behavior. This study provides a new and exciting element to both the II and political processing bodies of literature, and it is our hope that future researchers also consider II in studies of political psychology and voting.
The authors examine a prominent political advertisement from the 2012 Republican primaries in two studies. In the first study, we frame the advertisement using Witte's definition of a fear appeal to find out if respondents report truly feeling fear after viewing the advertisement. Results of the first study show respondents rate fear rather low on the list of emotions they experience after viewing the advertisement, while respondents rate disgust and anger much higher. In the second study, we focus on the emotion of disgust as it relates to the same political advertisement and the demographic variables of political party identification and religious affiliation to determine if either or both of these variables play a role in types and levels of disgust respondents report. Findings indicate both political party identification and religious affiliation influence reported levels of disgust. Limitations of the study and areas for future research are discussed.
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