The impact of election stress: Is political anxiety harming your health?
Key points
Americans are feeling increasingly stressed about politics amid an assassination attempt, a late-breaking candidate change, debate drama, and legal battles. In a “deeply negative” snapshot of American politics, a February 2024 Pew poll found that 65% of U.S. adults always or often felt exhausted by politics and 55% always or often felt angry (Navigating the challenges of the U.S. political landscape, Pew Charitable Trusts, 2024).
But research now shows the distress we feel around politics can harm our physical and mental health—and it’s only getting worse.
“In general, we know that chronic stress harms psychological well-being and physical well-being. It takes a toll on our bodies,” said Brett Ford, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who studies the link between emotions and political engagement. “There’s a strong case to be made that for many people, politics is a form of chronic stress.”
In national surveys, close to half of U.S. adults say politics is a significant source of stress, citing problems such as lost sleep, shortened tempers, and obsessive thoughts (Smith, K. B., PLOS ONE, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2022). On a daily basis, diary studies show that political events can make self-reported emotional reactivity and physical health worse (Neupert, S. D., et al., Current Psychology, Vol. 40, 2021).
“There is a considerable and growing amount of evidence that politics is having a negative effect on a broad range of health outcomes,” said Kevin B. Smith, PhD, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln who studies how politics affects well-being. “This is coming from different scholars using different data, approaches, and measures, and it all triangulates on the same inference: Politics isn’t very good for us.”
Psychologists, political scientists, and other experts are now digging further into the concepts of election stress and political anxiety with the hope of better understanding—and hopefully assuaging—those negative effects.
A shared stressor
Research has accelerated since the 2016 election, seeking to understand the unique aspects of “political anxiety,” including where it might overlap with psychological conditions such as general anxiety, and where it differs. Early studies suggest that the two concepts are distinct. In other words, people who report feeling anxious about politics aren’t simply people with high levels of anxiety overall (Weinschenk, A., & Smith, K. B., Politics and the Life Sciences, 2024).
“There’s something distinctive about the way politics is stressing us out,” said Jayme Renfro, PhD, an associate professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa who has conducted research on election stress. “Political anxiety is a thing that is separate from, or at least a distinct part of, stress and anxiety in general.”
Politics is a stressor that’s complicated and multifaceted, Ford said, partly because it can trigger such a wide variety of emotions, ranging from worry, sadness, and despair to outrage, disgust, anger, frustration, and more. Political events can have both short- and long-term repercussions, and they often involve conflict between groups, which can have real-life social ramifications.
The collective nature of politics also sets it apart from most other life stressors, said Shevaun D. Neupert, PhD, a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University who studies how elections impact day-to-day emotions.
“This is a widely felt phenomenon, a shared experience that affects all people living in this country in one way or another,” she said.
In national surveys led by Smith, conducted during the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election, around 40% of U.S. adults said politics was a prominent source of stress in their lives (PLOS ONE, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2022; Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2024).
“When we’ve probed a little deeper, significant proportions of Americans report that because of politics, they lose sleep, have damaged social relationships, and can’t stop paying attention to social media,” Smith said.
Across three separate surveys, 1 in 20 people also reported being so distressed about politics that they had suicidal thoughts.
Studies of partisanship echo those findings. In one study, people who said their state was becoming more politically polarized were also more likely to develop anxiety or depression (Nayak, S. S., et al., Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 284, 2021). When people felt politically dissimilar from the average voter in their state, they also reported experiencing worse physical health (Fraser, T., et al., PNAS Nexus, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2022).
Election season is particularly turbulent, with swells of positive and negative emotions as primaries, rallies, and debates unfold. Daily diary studies led by Neupert found that emotional reactivity in various life domains (including work and relationships) increased several days before and after the 2016 and 2018 elections (Current Psychology, Vol. 40, 2021; Zhu, X., et al., Psychological Reports, Vol. 125, No. 5, 2021).
“On days when people were experiencing more election-related stress, they also had more negative emotions and reported worse physical health,” she said.
Part of that stress may be related to the act of voting itself. During the 2012 presidential election, Renfro, Smith, and their colleagues found higher cortisol levels in people voting at the polls compared to those who voted at home or did a control task outside the home that was unrelated to politics (Neiman, J., et al., PLOS ONE, Vol. 10, No. 9, 2015).
Limiting chronic exposure
While there’s plenty of historical precedent for chaos and contention in U.S. politics, some aspects of the last few election cycles are fundamentally different.
“The information environment has changed, making it much, much harder to ignore politics today,” Smith said. “It’s not something we’re getting in the morning with the newspaper and in the evening on the TV broadcast—it’s now constant, all the time.”
A 24-hour news cycle full of conflict and vitriol functions as a chronic, low-level stressor that can trigger what Stosny refers to as “election stress disorder.” Patients he works with report intrusive thoughts, compassion fatigue, and strained relationships.
Ford says to keep in mind that social media platforms are designed to keep us engaged and push our buttons. That means it takes extra effort to limit chronic exposure, but finding a balance is important. Tune in when there’s something to be done, she said, like finding out where to vote or how to contribute to a campaign. Another tip: Consider reading rather than watching your news, Renfro said.
“Reading gives you a little bit more control over what you’re ingesting, so you’re not being bombarded with scenes and images that may be intended to manipulate you in some way,” she said.
On the topic of political anxiety, Smith said what we don’t know is still much, much larger than what we do. Priorities include a deeper understanding of how politics affects health across various groups, and how to support individual well-being without harming collective goals, such as political participation.
“We can’t ask people to sacrifice their well-being, so we need to understand what can work to reduce political anxiety,” ideally without reducing engagement, Ford said. “It’s a tall order, but an important one.”
Go Back - Politics is increasingly recognized as a significant source of chronic stress, affecting both mental and physical health negatively across a broad swath of the population.
- Political anxiety is distinctly different from psychological conditions such as general anxiety, with its unique impact on emotional well-being and societal cohesion.
- Effective coping strategies include regulating exposure to political information and fostering positive social connections to mitigate the adverse effects of political stress.
Americans are feeling increasingly stressed about politics amid an assassination attempt, a late-breaking candidate change, debate drama, and legal battles. In a “deeply negative” snapshot of American politics, a February 2024 Pew poll found that 65% of U.S. adults always or often felt exhausted by politics and 55% always or often felt angry (Navigating the challenges of the U.S. political landscape, Pew Charitable Trusts, 2024).
But research now shows the distress we feel around politics can harm our physical and mental health—and it’s only getting worse.
“In general, we know that chronic stress harms psychological well-being and physical well-being. It takes a toll on our bodies,” said Brett Ford, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who studies the link between emotions and political engagement. “There’s a strong case to be made that for many people, politics is a form of chronic stress.”
In national surveys, close to half of U.S. adults say politics is a significant source of stress, citing problems such as lost sleep, shortened tempers, and obsessive thoughts (Smith, K. B., PLOS ONE, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2022). On a daily basis, diary studies show that political events can make self-reported emotional reactivity and physical health worse (Neupert, S. D., et al., Current Psychology, Vol. 40, 2021).
“There is a considerable and growing amount of evidence that politics is having a negative effect on a broad range of health outcomes,” said Kevin B. Smith, PhD, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln who studies how politics affects well-being. “This is coming from different scholars using different data, approaches, and measures, and it all triangulates on the same inference: Politics isn’t very good for us.”
Psychologists, political scientists, and other experts are now digging further into the concepts of election stress and political anxiety with the hope of better understanding—and hopefully assuaging—those negative effects.
A shared stressor
Research has accelerated since the 2016 election, seeking to understand the unique aspects of “political anxiety,” including where it might overlap with psychological conditions such as general anxiety, and where it differs. Early studies suggest that the two concepts are distinct. In other words, people who report feeling anxious about politics aren’t simply people with high levels of anxiety overall (Weinschenk, A., & Smith, K. B., Politics and the Life Sciences, 2024).
“There’s something distinctive about the way politics is stressing us out,” said Jayme Renfro, PhD, an associate professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa who has conducted research on election stress. “Political anxiety is a thing that is separate from, or at least a distinct part of, stress and anxiety in general.”
Politics is a stressor that’s complicated and multifaceted, Ford said, partly because it can trigger such a wide variety of emotions, ranging from worry, sadness, and despair to outrage, disgust, anger, frustration, and more. Political events can have both short- and long-term repercussions, and they often involve conflict between groups, which can have real-life social ramifications.
The collective nature of politics also sets it apart from most other life stressors, said Shevaun D. Neupert, PhD, a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University who studies how elections impact day-to-day emotions.
“This is a widely felt phenomenon, a shared experience that affects all people living in this country in one way or another,” she said.
In national surveys led by Smith, conducted during the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election, around 40% of U.S. adults said politics was a prominent source of stress in their lives (PLOS ONE, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2022; Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2024).
“When we’ve probed a little deeper, significant proportions of Americans report that because of politics, they lose sleep, have damaged social relationships, and can’t stop paying attention to social media,” Smith said.
Across three separate surveys, 1 in 20 people also reported being so distressed about politics that they had suicidal thoughts.
Studies of partisanship echo those findings. In one study, people who said their state was becoming more politically polarized were also more likely to develop anxiety or depression (Nayak, S. S., et al., Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 284, 2021). When people felt politically dissimilar from the average voter in their state, they also reported experiencing worse physical health (Fraser, T., et al., PNAS Nexus, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2022).
Election season is particularly turbulent, with swells of positive and negative emotions as primaries, rallies, and debates unfold. Daily diary studies led by Neupert found that emotional reactivity in various life domains (including work and relationships) increased several days before and after the 2016 and 2018 elections (Current Psychology, Vol. 40, 2021; Zhu, X., et al., Psychological Reports, Vol. 125, No. 5, 2021).
“On days when people were experiencing more election-related stress, they also had more negative emotions and reported worse physical health,” she said.
Part of that stress may be related to the act of voting itself. During the 2012 presidential election, Renfro, Smith, and their colleagues found higher cortisol levels in people voting at the polls compared to those who voted at home or did a control task outside the home that was unrelated to politics (Neiman, J., et al., PLOS ONE, Vol. 10, No. 9, 2015).
Limiting chronic exposure
While there’s plenty of historical precedent for chaos and contention in U.S. politics, some aspects of the last few election cycles are fundamentally different.
“The information environment has changed, making it much, much harder to ignore politics today,” Smith said. “It’s not something we’re getting in the morning with the newspaper and in the evening on the TV broadcast—it’s now constant, all the time.”
A 24-hour news cycle full of conflict and vitriol functions as a chronic, low-level stressor that can trigger what Stosny refers to as “election stress disorder.” Patients he works with report intrusive thoughts, compassion fatigue, and strained relationships.
Ford says to keep in mind that social media platforms are designed to keep us engaged and push our buttons. That means it takes extra effort to limit chronic exposure, but finding a balance is important. Tune in when there’s something to be done, she said, like finding out where to vote or how to contribute to a campaign. Another tip: Consider reading rather than watching your news, Renfro said.
“Reading gives you a little bit more control over what you’re ingesting, so you’re not being bombarded with scenes and images that may be intended to manipulate you in some way,” she said.
On the topic of political anxiety, Smith said what we don’t know is still much, much larger than what we do. Priorities include a deeper understanding of how politics affects health across various groups, and how to support individual well-being without harming collective goals, such as political participation.
“We can’t ask people to sacrifice their well-being, so we need to understand what can work to reduce political anxiety,” ideally without reducing engagement, Ford said. “It’s a tall order, but an important one.”
