Public Mood

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Public mood

Entry prepared for the Encyclopedia of Quality of Life Research,

2nd Edition

Author: Sergiu Bltescu, Associate Professor, PhD.

Email: [email protected]

First draft: 10 May 2013

Synonyms

Social emotions

Definition

Public mood is originally defined as "diffuse affective state, having distinct positive and negative

components, that citizens experience because of their membership in a particular political community"

(Wendy M. Rahn, Kroeger, & Kite, 1996, pp. 31-32)


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Public Mood / Sergiu Baltatescu 2

Description

Structure and etiology

The concept of public mood was introduced by the political scientists Wendy M. Rahn, Brian

Kroeger and Cynthia M. Kite, as a conceptual solution to a series of problems concerning the individual

and collective judgments on political issues, and short term and long term determinants of political

behavior.

Public moods are different than individual moods, although they keep the diffuse state

character. While the individual moods are effects of personal experiences, public mood is the result of

the membership in national groups/communities, and is associated with processes such as collective

memory. Thus, public moods are "social emotions" (which are triggered by appraisals of events or

situations linked to social identity - see Smith (1993)). Public events such as winning a medal by a

national sport team may trigger changes in these collective affects. As such, the etiology of public mood

is closely linked with national or collective identity, and also fits the independent/interdependent self

thesis, as well as the controversial affective contagion thesis.

Similar to Watson and Tellegen's (1985)bipolar structure of individual mood (see Affect balance

scale), Rahn, Kroeger and Kite (1996)suggest that there are two independent dimensions of public

mood: positive and negative. As such, the concept was measured by asking the respondents how

frequently experiences positive (happy, pride, hopeful, and secure) and negative (angry, afraid, sad, and


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Public mood in the national accounts of well-being

Public mood measures are informative for all national accounts of well-being. However, as

Richard Eckersley (2000, p. 23)observed, most of researches on which national indicators of well-being

are based are composed of questions framed at individual level. The result is that they fail to catch

contemporary sociological processes such as "erosion of faith in society". Methodologically, this

approach is insufficient also because does not explain the changes in evaluation dynamics of this

phenomena. Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1987)suggests the introduction of the climate of opinion as a

social indicators that reflects perceptions of opinions of others on public issues. She suggests that to the

questions about the respondent own feelings or own opinion to add questions on how do most people

feel or think about this public issue. This will complete the picture. The methodological problems of this

approach should be carefully taken into consideration. It was found that the individual evaluations of

what other feel or think can be biased. They are, for instance, dependent on psychological distance.

Cross-References

Affect balance scale - Affective contagion - Affects - Climate of opinion - Collective identity - Collective

memory - Homeostasis -independent/interdependent self - Moods - National accounts of well-being -

Psychological distance - Subjective well-being

References


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Baltatescu, S. (2007). Towards a Sociological Theory of Subjective Well-Being (July 4, 2007). Excerpt fromthe PhD thesis Happiness in the Social Context of Post-Communist Transition in Romania,University of Bucharest, July 2007, pp. 209-225. Translated by the author. SSRN eLibrary.

Bradburn, N. M., & Noll, C. E. (1969). The structure of psychological well-being. Chicago: Aldine.Cummins, R. A. (2012). The determinants of happiness. International Journal of Happiness and

Development, 1(1), 86-101.Durkheim, . (1893). De la division du travail social: tude sur l'organisation des socits suprieures.

Paris: F. Alcan.Eckersley, R. (2000). The State and Fate of Nations: Implications of Subjective Measures of Personal and

Social Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research, 52(1), 3-27. doi: 10.1023/A:1007071621613

Moller, V. (1998). Quality of life in South Africa: Post-apartheid trends. Social Indicators Research,43(1-2), 27-68.

Noelle-Neumann, E. (1987). Quality of Life Indicators. Measuring Economic and Social Well-Being: TheGerman Experience. Paper presented at Statistics Users' Conference, London, UK, November.

Rahn, W. M. (2000). Affect as information: The role of public mood in political reasoning. Elements ofreason: Cognition, choice, and the bounds of rationality, 130-150.

Rahn, W. M., Kroeger, B., & Kite, C. M. (1996). A framework for the study of public mood. PoliticalPsychology, 17(1), 29-58. doi: 10.2307/3791942

Schwartz, N., & Strack, F. (1999). Report on Subjective Well-Being: Judgemental Process and TheirMethodological Implications. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwartz (Eds.), Well-Being: TheFoundations of Hedonic Psychology(pp. 61-84). New York: Russel Sage Foundation.

Schwarz, N., Strack, F., Kommer, D., & Wagner, D. (1987). Soccer, rooms, and the quality of your life:Mood effects on judgments of satisfaction with life in general and with specific domains.European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(1), 69-79.

Smith, E. R. (1993). Social identity and social emotions: Toward new conceptualizations of prejudice.Watson, D., & Tellegen, A. (1985). Toward a consensual structure of mood. Psychol Bull, 98(2), 219-235.

Public Mood

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