Dr Luca Bernardi , Dr Giovanni Sala , Dr Ian H. Gotlib
{"title":"A cognitive model of depression and political attitudes","authors":"Dr Luca Bernardi , Dr Giovanni Sala , Dr Ian H. Gotlib","doi":"10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102737","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Depression is among the most prevalent mental health problems. Previous research indicates that depressive symptoms and cognitive regulation processes are differentially associated with political attitudes. Here we build and test a model based on cognitive aspects of depression that provides an explanation for those differential associations. We test this formulation using a novel survey dataset that includes measures of worry and stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cognitive regulation processes, and depression. We posit that rumination mediates the association between depression and self-related political attitudes, whereas negativity bias mediates the association between depression and government-related attitudes. We find considerable support for these claims. Our findings elucidate how depression may influence people's perceptions of politics.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48188,"journal":{"name":"Electoral Studies","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102737"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379423001592/pdfft?md5=509b242e957a19a3101695dfa981ff7b&pid=1-s2.0-S0261379423001592-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Electoral Studies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379423001592","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Depression is among the most prevalent mental health problems. Previous research indicates that depressive symptoms and cognitive regulation processes are differentially associated with political attitudes. Here we build and test a model based on cognitive aspects of depression that provides an explanation for those differential associations. We test this formulation using a novel survey dataset that includes measures of worry and stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cognitive regulation processes, and depression. We posit that rumination mediates the association between depression and self-related political attitudes, whereas negativity bias mediates the association between depression and government-related attitudes. We find considerable support for these claims. Our findings elucidate how depression may influence people's perceptions of politics.
期刊介绍:
Electoral Studies is an international journal covering all aspects of voting, the central act in the democratic process. Political scientists, economists, sociologists, game theorists, geographers, contemporary historians and lawyers have common, and overlapping, interests in what causes voters to act as they do, and the consequences. Electoral Studies provides a forum for these diverse approaches. It publishes fully refereed papers, both theoretical and empirical, on such topics as relationships between votes and seats, and between election outcomes and politicians reactions; historical, sociological, or geographical correlates of voting behaviour; rational choice analysis of political acts, and critiques of such analyses.