How mental wellbeing affects our political decisions

Scientific litsketch on improving mental well-being

Research shows that how (un)happy we feel can even affect our political voting behaviours such that when we feel unhappy, we are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who is a challenger (rather than reelecting someone who is already in office) and/or a populist (Ward et al., 2021). The research analysed more than 2 million survey responses collected between 2009 and 2016 in the US. It found that people who feel unhappy are more likely to vote for people like Donald Trump (both challenger and populist) and Bernie Sanders (populist). For politicians who are already in office, they are more likely to be re-elected if people have greater mental well-being. People who feel unhappy are more likely to vote for politicians who are challenging those who are already in office.

Other research shows that the way we try to control our emotions also affects our political decisions. People often try to reduce their negative emotions that they experience following a loss of a political leader that they voted by trying to see the situation in a more positive light. This act of controlling our negative emotions makes people less motivated to participate in political action such as participating in a protest or donating money or time (Ford et al., 2019). The research surveyed 187 people who voted for Hillary Clinton who lost in the 2016 presidential election in the US, and found that people who were able to control their negative emotions by reframing the situation to see it in less negative terms were less likely to engage in political action in the future.

Beware of how your emotions and how you control your emotions affect your political decisions.

Ward, George, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Lyle H. Ungar, and Johannes C. Eichstaedt. "(Un) happiness and voting in US presidential elections." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2020).

Ford, Brett Q., Matthew Feinberg, Phoebe Lam, Iris B. Mauss, and Oliver P. John. "Using reappraisal to regulate negative emotion after the 2016 US Presidential election: Does emotion regulation trump political action?." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 117, no. 5 (2019): 998.