Emotional responses and attitudes to the peace talks with ETA

In this study, two questions are analyzed: (1) what the emotions provoked by the Spanish government’s declaration of its intention to negotiate a peace process with the terrorist group ETA are; (2) how these emotions relate to different attitudes to this negotiation. A questionnaire was applied to a sample of 263 university students. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify how emotions were organized and an ANOVA was subsequently conducted to analyze the relationship between emotions and attitudes to negotiation. With respect to the first question, the emotions which are linked to the negotiation process are classified in a three factor model (enthusiasm, anger and anxiety), and with respect to the second, it became clear that the emotion of anger is associated with subjects who are against negotiation. At the same time, enthusiasm and anxiety were associated with different attitudes to negotiation, support and rejection respectively; however, both these emotions were also found to be present among those who wanted the different political parties to reach an agreement and face the process of negotiation with a common policy.