Warning: Politics May Be Bad for Your Mental Health
A timely reminder
In Case You Missed It…
This is my 300th post on Substack, and the second installment of my new “Warnings” series. You can access the full collection here. Hope you enjoy it!
For many of us, politics isn’t just something that happens “out there.” It’s woven into everyday life - and not always to our benefit. Sometimes, in fact, it can be deeply upsetting. Could the constant drumbeat of negative political news be undermining our mental health?
A recent paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology tackles this important question, and concludes that the answer is yes. Day-to-day political exposure reliably evokes negative emotions - anger, sadness, disgust, and the like - which in turn erode both psychological and physical well-being.
How do people deal with the ever-present drip, drip, drip of negative news? How does it affect their motivation to engage in political action? And are these effects stronger on one side of the political aisle than the other?
All will be revealed in this post!
From Big Shocks to Daily Drips
We sometimes think of politics as something distant, played out in parliaments, ministries, and presidential palaces a million miles away. But politics often seeps into day-to-day life. Turn on the news, scroll through social media, sit down at dinner, or chat with colleagues, and there it is. For many of us, politics has become a central feature of our lives and identities. In a very real sense, the political is personal.
How, then, does politics affect people’s well-being? Much of the existing research on this topic has focused on major events such as elections, referenda, and political upheavals. And the findings are, in a way, reassuring. Even when people are deeply invested, the emotional impact of these events tends to fade quickly. For example, the 2016 US presidential election - despite its intensity - didn’t lead to lasting declines in well-being among those disappointed by the result. Most people quickly adjusted to the new normal.
However, politics isn’t just a series of isolated shocks. It’s a continuous stream of events: scandals, conflicts, policy announcements, controversies. Each on its own might be minor. Together, however, they form a background hum of tension. Politics, in other words, may be a chronic stressor - and chronic stressors can undermine psychological and even physical well-being.