Tuesday Seminar – 28 January, 2020

Tuesday January 28, 2020: Jordan Mansell (UQAM), Steven Mock (University of Waterloo), Jinelle Piereder (University of Waterloo), Carter Rhea (UdeM) and Adrienne Tecza (University of Colorado). “New Methods for the Study of Ideology: Field-Test of Cognitive Affective Mapping (CAM’s).” Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, Université de Montréal, C-4145, 12h-13h.

Abstract: In this study, we conduct the first test of cognitive-affective mapping as an empirical tool to study ideological differences. Based on neuroscientific theories of emotional coherence, cognitive-affective mapping (CAM) is a method to visually represent beliefs as networks of concepts with emotional valence that an individual associates with a given political issue. Using a software application developed for this study, we ask (n=150) Canadians to draw a CAM of their views on a single political issue, the introduction of the Carbon Tax in Canada. Using this data we generate a series of variables capturing the structural properties of each network. After normalizing the network measures using graph theory, these variables are added to a series of traditional linear regressions to test whether different ideological groups show structured differences in how they think about political issues. This is the first attempt to investigate whether the structural properties of CAMs provide insight into ideological thinking.

This content has been updated on 30 April 2020 at 7 h 43 min.