During a presidential election cycle, it can be tough to strike a balance between staying informed and taking care of your own mental health. In today’s era of polarization, there’s also added pressures: contentious conversations with family members, rhetoric designed to incite anger, and the confusing mix of facts and misinformation on social media.
MSU experts can comment on the role emotions play during election season and how to take care of yourself when you’re feeling overwhelmed by the news.
Political communication
Monique Mitchell Turner, professor and chair of theMSU Department of Communication, studies the role that emotion plays in persuasion. She has been researching anger since the 1990s, with emphasis on whether appeals to anger can work for politicians and activists and how it affects what we think and pay attention to.
Contact: mmturner@msu.edu
“Anger is a dominant force driving judgments and decision making, and they influence thought and action — often outside of awareness. Anger is caused by a perception of being slighted (offended or injured, or that someone important to the self was slighted), a sense of certainty of what caused the event and who caused it, and a belief that someone else intentionally caused the event. Relatedly, anger-infused communication is defined as communication where the source intentionally communicates that the (political) issues are caused by an unjust third party, who intentionally caused the risk for nefarious purposes.
“Angering communication leads to more feelings of anger — and political candidates have become aware of this phenomenon, increasing their use of angry rhetoric. Political anger is aroused when people feel their values, goals and political opinions are threatened. Anger drives policy preferences, social activism and voting (among other outcomes). Anger is particularly interesting because it can cause both prosocial and antisocial behaviors. Anger can elicit criminally violent acts but also focused attention to a specific issue and motivating change to undo unjust behavior.”
Mark Brandt, associate professor in the MSU Department of Psychology, is a social and personality psychologist. He leads theBelief Systems Lab to understand ideological and moral beliefs and why people adopt the belief systems they hold.
Contact: brandt15@msu.edu
“Most Americans do not pay close attention to politics, but that can change with the election approaching. This has several effects.
“When politics is on people’s minds, people express more dislike of opposing partisans, a trend that has increased over the last decade. This means that when people encounter political information or political discussions, it is more likely to be tinged with animosity.
“Discussions of controversial issues are much more likely as elections approach. Many people find the idea of these discussions stressful and experience anger when encountering evidence that contradicts their point of view. This stress and negativity surrounding politics has negative effects on people’s mental health. Although it is possible to downplay these negative political emotions, research finds that when people do this, they are less likely to engage in politics. That is, the very things that make politics so unpleasant may be motivating us to fulfill our democratic civic duty.
“Social psychologists have known for decades that people dislike people and ideas that contradict their worldview. Yet, encountering people and ideas that we disagree with is part of being an engaged citizen of a pluralistic democracy. Although a stressful proposition, including people who you disagree with in respectful dialogue, including active listening and the sharing of personally relevant stories, is helpful for building bridges and taking some of the stress out of political discussion.”
Family and relationships
Bill Chopik, associate professor in MSU’s Department of Psychology leads MSU’s Close Relationships Lab. His research focuses on how relationships and the people in them change over time and across situations, including the impact of inside factors, such as biological or hormonal, and outside factors such as social roles.
Contact: chopikwi@msu.edu
“Election season can be a time rife with hot emotions. Because politics and mortality are so intertwined with our values, people might be more on edge, have shorter tempers, or be exhausted by the news cycle. That doesn’t bode well for the relationships with our friends and families or our mental health. However, coming up with ways of communicating with our loved ones that don’t trigger fights and arguments is doable and these skills can be learned. It is also important to engage in the tried-and-true emotion regulation strategies that can keep us in a good mental space as the election approaches.”
Elizabeth Dorrance Hall is an associate professor of communication and director of the MSU Family Communication and Relationships Lab. Her research focuses on communication processes in close relationships, especially in the context of family.
Contact: edh@msu.edu
“Political conversations with family members can be tricky at best and disastrous at worst. As we enter another election season, it may be helpful to think about your goals. Is your goal to change minds? Prove you are right? Or preserve a harmonious family environment?
“If your goal is the latter, consider topic avoidance and boundary setting as acceptable options. If you do want to engage in a political discussion with family members who likely disagree with you, here are a few tips:
- Listen to understand, not to respond or judge others. Ask questions and stay curious.
- Consider multiple features of your family relationships when deciding what to say: your past experiences and conversations, the state of the relationship now, and how your conversation today may affect the future of the relationship.
- Accept the reality that you may never agree. Even though families may start off with a shared world view, people and their beliefs change over time as they grow and experience new things. Accept that you may need to live with disagreement.”
Crystal L. Cederna is an associate professor in the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health in the MSU College of Human Medicine. She is also a pediatric psychologist at the Hurley Children’s Clinic in Flint, Mich. and directs the developmental-behavioral pediatrics rotation for pediatric residents of the Hurley Medical Center / MSU College of Human Medicine Pediatric Residency Program.
Contact: cedernac@msu.edu
"News and election coverage viewing, especially when excessive or at the expense of other daily activities, has the potential to adversely impact everyone. Kids and teens are especially susceptible to negative impacts from news viewing because they often lack the tools to differentiate fact from fiction and to appreciate that multiple perspectives to a situation may exist. Moreover, kids and teens may not have an adult to explain complex topics and ‘close to home’ issues and what their implications truly are, or to monitor the quality and accuracy of material viewed.
"When kids appear overwhelmed by election news, taking daily screen, news and politics breaks can be useful. Moving forward, monitoring the news sources kids view and pausing content for discussion or to support coping are encouraged. Similarly, allowing kids spaces to discuss issues of concern as a family, to acknowledge feelings an election cycles raises, to consider their own views and opinions, and to simply be kids are also encouraged."
Social media
Jacob T. Fisher, assistant professor of communication, studies the impact of digital media on attention and multitasking. His research focuses on how different forms of media capture and retain user attention and the implications this has for cognition, emotion and related processes.
Contact: jtf@msu.edu
“It’s crucial to remember that social media sites and other digital platforms are painstakingly designed by some of the world’s brightest and most well-paid people to be attention-grabbing and attention-keeping. This is not accidental — it’s their core business model. The more eyes and ears that are on the platform (and the longer they remain on the platform) the more advertising dollars can be made, and the more data can be collected to tailor future content recommendations. As we approach another election cycle, understanding how these platforms work to capture our attention is crucial for maintaining a balanced perspective on the political information we see.
“Our brains have limited capacity to process information, and a growing amount of work shows that our attention is especially drawn to content that is (a) surprising, (b) emotionally and/or morally charged and (c) reinforces our existing beliefs about our in-groups and out-groups. This can lead to phenomena like ‘doomscrolling’ — compulsively seeking out and consuming negative news — a behavior which can impact our mental health and overall worldview. While often framed as an issue of individual responsibility, this behavior is exacerbated by the business model of many digital content platforms.
“Amid the firehose of political content this election season, it’s particularly important to be mindful of how these attention-capturing mechanisms might influence our consumption of political information. By understanding these dynamics, individuals can have more tools to make more conscious choices about their media consumption. This might include setting boundaries for device use, limiting notifications or scheduling dedicated offline time. These strategies can help mitigate some of the negative effects associated with the current information environment and promote a more balanced media diet.”
Celeste Campos-Castillo, associate professor of media and information, studies how to leverage technologies to benefit mental health and well-being of marginalized populations.
Contact: camposca@msu.edu
“A polarized political climate can take a toll on mental health, particularly for youth from marginalized populations. They turn to social media to find a community to help them process events and rhetoric, sometimes with humor, sometimes with cathartic disclosures about personal traumatic experiences, and sometimes with a call for political mobilization. At the same time, their online communities may get targeted by both humans and bots who make hurtful comments. The cyberbullying and harassment that some youth experience can take on a different form during times like these, in that the antagonists shift from being schoolmates or coworkers to complete strangers who believe you should not exist.”
Race and culture
Farha Abbasi is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and core faculty member of the MSU Muslim Studies Program. She is the founding director of the Annual Muslim Mental Health Conference and has been recognized nationally and globally for her work to address the barriers that stigmatize and silence mental health.
Contact: abbasif@msu.edu
“The vitriolic and hateful political discourse around immigration during a recent political cycle is traumatic and will have a long-lasting impact on our society. The American dream is vivid and alive as it draws the best from the rest of the world. It is imperative to have a sensible debate around the issue and not mar it in political jargon.
“Immigration out of choice or forced due to growing geopolitical unrest and conflict can be a threat to your sense of well-being and mental health. How the host culture welcomes you is integral to your assimilation. This growing xenophobia is leading to misplaced hatred leading to an alarming increase in hate crimes. The culture of ‘otherization’ is leaving indelible marks on our psyche and caricaturing who is an American and deemed patriotic.
“As a naturalized citizen, the question is, does my voice matter? Does my vote count? Who represents me, and where do I stand in this election cycle?”
LeConté Dill, associate professor of African American and African studies, has spent 25 years working with and researching public health, health and social policy, and intersections of the arts and health. A certified mindfulness instructor, Dill is focused on ensuring her teaching and research intersect with the arts and humanities and health care fields to explore ways of centering wellness for all.
Contact: ldill@msu.edu
“We know that heightened political polarization can contribute to race-based, intergenerational, chronic, collective and/or vicarious trauma. In times such as these, we can look toward our Black Feminist touchstones, such as Toni Cade Bambara, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Octavia Raheem, Tricia Hersey, and even myself, who champion the political and revolutionary nature of self-care. That may mean that marginalized and historically minoritized people log off of social media and the computer, take a mental health day from work or school, emote and rest. Such self-care functions alongside community care.
“It is important that we all identify our roles in the social change ecosystem, so that we can (continue to) organize and advocate in sustainable ways. That may be assembling to protest, but it may also be engaging in mutual aid, skill sharing, supporting community-based and -accountable organizations, writing emails and letters to policymakers, providing child care and elder care, creating art, or engaging in other wellness rituals.”
Read more about Dill’s perspective on how mental health and wellness are connected in the Black community and beyond.