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Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment. By George E. Marcus, W. Russell Neuman, and Michael MacKuen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 199p. $42.00 cloth, $15.00 paper.
Perhaps it is ironic that a book about rational judgment is entitled Affective Intelligence. This is a rousing and provoking effort, with an unmistakable double agenda. One objective is to dispute conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between affect and reason, especially the rational choice vision of political judgment. A second is to establish a more prominent role for emotions in models of political behavior: "The scientific community might fruitfully devote more attention to the idea that emotions are centrally important to political behavior" (p. 129). The two objectives are linked. By demonstrating that emotions influence how and about what we think, and what we do, the authors effectively challenge a prevailing disposition of the research community to set aside the complexities of emotional dynamics or to conceive of emotions as distorting agents in judgmental processes. Rational choice is the proverbial straw man in this regard, because it generally defines human affect as endogenous. Marcus, Neuman, and MacKuen argue persuasively that emotional engagement motivates individuals to think more deeply about political affairs and thus enhances rational choice.
The first half of the book is devoted to the first objective, which details the traditional understanding of emotions: We think first and then feel. Moreover, emotion and cognition are thought to work in opposition. A passionate citizen is unlikely to be a deliberate one. Emotions appeal to the heart, not the mind. Against this backdrop of scholarly consensus, the authors posit that emotions activate reasoned consideration. Emotions draw greater attention to environmental circumstances, which allows people to process information required for a rational choice. The authors invoke Herbert Simon: "The human organism living in a demanding environment requires an interrupt mechanism to redirect human attention to higher priority real-time needs" (p. 7). This "interrupt mechanism" is key to Affective Intelligence.
Drawing heavily from recent literature in...