When Politics is Personal: Surviving Election Season

After every contested election cycle, families across the U.S. struggle to move from polls to poultry. Not that political discussions are not important, as I have addressed in a previous column [i], but elections can be stressful. Many people find it challenging to balance their passion to be a part of desired change while maintaining their own equilibrium and well-being. Research supports the legitimacy of this challenge.

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Positive Affect and Political Action

Brett Q. Ford et al. (2023) in a piece entitled “The Political is Personal,” researched the extent to which daily politics takes a toll on psychological and physical health. [ii] Using diary studies to track the experiences of two United States samples, they found that daily political events consistently prompted negative emotions which impacted participants in two ways: greater motivation to take political action and decreased physical and psychological well-being.

Ford et al. acknowledged the link they discovered in their research: Political actions such as volunteering time or taking part in protests were undertaken in an attempt to alter the political system seen as responsible for negative emotions. Yet people also attempted to control their own emotional state. Ford et al. found that individuals attempted to regulate political emotion through cognitive strategies such as distraction and reappraisal, which increased well-being but decreased the motivation to act.

This then, might be the trade-off: Emotion regulation strategies promote good feelings but may discourage political action. Ford et al. examine how this works.

Personal Politics Prompt Passion

Most of us know someone who is politically passionate. Whether we watch them on television or listen to them vent in our own dining room, we know that such passion is not always expressed in a positive fashion. Such emotion is often tied to the ways in which political views intersect with personal convictions.

Ford et al. describe multiple pathways through which daily politics prompt negative emotion. Political policies can threaten autonomy or may be financially costly—thus directly threatening individual livelihood, which in turn triggers a spectrum of negative emotions.

Ford et al. also recognize that politics is personal in its link to core moral values and convictions, including what they describe as polarizing “culture war” issues such as immigration and abortion. They explain that because moral convictions are critical to our sense of self, political issues that challenge such convictions are perceived as a personal attack, prompting strong negative emotions.

Ford et al. also note that people often experience a sense of social identification with a particular political party, creating a personal stake in the outcome of the party’s success and failure, which can impact personal self-esteem. Ford et al. explain this phenomenon may be particularly true for people who have formed “parasocial relationships” with political figures, creating a one-sided emotional bond. Most of us can remember headline news covering threats and criminal behavior stemming from real examples of this type of fantasy relationship—illustrating how for many people, politics indeed is personal.

Weathering the Political Season

As Ford et al. acknowledge, politics can be a source of chronic stress, illustrating the influence politicians have over citizens far beyond the formal power and authority involved in holding office. This recognition has real implications for modern families seeking to survive and thrive over the holidays.

Because political influence can take a physical and psychological toll, proactively planning pleasurable, personal activities can balance emotions around election season. Whether through distraction, cognitive reappraisal, or focusing on the silver lining, people can weather the election season, making it easier to enjoy good health for the holidays.