Does anxiety increase policy learning?
Does anxiety affect how public officials process policy information? It is often argued that the increasing number of policy failures can be explained by a lack of policy learning by decision makers. While previous studies show that socioeconomic and partisan variables are related to the perception...
| Published in: | Policy Studies Journal Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 603 - 623 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Aug2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=179254197&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 179254197 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0190292X PSJ jtl: Policy Studies Journal issn: 0190292X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2024 vid: 52 iid: 3 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 179254197 10.1111/psj.12529 ppf: 603 ppct: 20 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: C – @attributes: type: P size: 1.7MB tig: atl: Does anxiety increase policy learning? aug: au: Lablih, Moulay Bundi, Pirmin Portmann, Lea affil: Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP), University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland Interface Politikstudien,, Switzerland su: Information policy Government policy Public administration Public officers Socioeconomic factors sug: subj: Information policy Government policy Public administration Public officers Socioeconomic factors Other General Government Support keyword: comparative public policy emotions public administration Administración pública Emociones Políticas públicas comparadas 公共行政 情绪 比较公共政策 comparative public policy emotions public administration Administración pública Emociones Políticas públicas comparadas 公共行政 情绪 比较公共政策 ab: Does anxiety affect how public officials process policy information? It is often argued that the increasing number of policy failures can be explained by a lack of policy learning by decision makers. While previous studies show that socioeconomic and partisan variables are related to the perception of policy information, little attention has been paid to the role of emotions, such as anxiety, in the policymaking process. In this paper, we investigate the impact of anxiety on the policy learning of local office holders at the individual level in Switzerland. We introduce the Marcus' Affective Intelligence Model—which examines how emotions affect individuals' information processing—to the policy learning literature. To test the expectations of the model, we draw on novel experimental data collected among local elected officials from the 26 Swiss cantons. In the experiment, we randomly display anxiety‐inducing images along with policy information. We provide evidence that anxiety has a positive causal effect on learning. Considering potential moderators of this effect, we show that the relationship is not conditioned by the strength of priors or the perceived complexity of public policies. However, these variables are substantially correlated with policy learning. Our findings have important implications for better understanding how information influences policymaking. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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