Emotional enthusiasm and anxiety toward candidates are independent dimensions, not opposites

Evidence

A similar factor analysis (here for the relatively quiet June period) of the four new items produces Figure 9.2. Note that the two item pairs fall neatly into two distinct clusters: anxiety and enthusiasm. Further, the distinctiveness of the emotions is apparent. Were anxiety and enthusiasm antipodes, the four items would line up along one dimension, with enthusiasm and interest at one end and anxious and upset at the other end. This is obviously not so since the enthusiastic-unenthusiastic and interested-indifferent ratings are nearly orthogonal to the upset-comfortable and anxious-safe ratings. Thus in these new measures, the enthusiasm and anxiety measures are not mere opposites, as the valence view of emotional response would predict; instead, they appear to be separate entities, as the dual-system view expects. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1684

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Anxiety and enthusiasm are structurally separate emotional dimensions, not opposites. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 1687