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Don’t stress it: Getting a break from politics

By Jon Andreassi 4 min read
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Relentless campaign advertisements are exhausting and stressful.

As Election Day looms just a week away, the polls are sending a clear message: It’s close, and no one is sure which way the wind will blow.

While the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump fight tooth and nail for those still on the fence, the airwaves and cyberspace are inundated with political ad after political ad. It is inescapable.

For those who know where they stand, it can get to be a bit much.

Dr. Sean Coyne, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington & Jefferson College, is teaching a course called “The Psychology of Stress.” While the election is not part of the syllabus, Coyne says the subject would have been a good fit.

“I didn’t think about it this year, but I wish I had. Because I absolutely could have incorporated it into the course,” Coyne said.

The two key factors in creating a stressful reaction, according to Coyne, are controllability and predictability.

Elections are often unpredictable and the final results can feel out of our control. The razor-thin margins in the polls only exacerbate this.

“People are going to be checking every poll. It’s 49-51, it’s 50-50. Nobody can trick themselves into thinking they have control or a prediction in this particular election,” Coyne said.

Even as Coyne’s course on stress does not cover politics, the topic is still unavoidable in the classroom.

“I use a lot of YouTube clips in my classes. Things that are inherently non-political, and yet I can’t even get through YouTube clips without these super angry, super aggressive ads at the beginning of them,” Coyne said.

For Coyne personally, the bombardment of advertisements for either candidate has temporarily changed his television habits.

That is, no more 5 p.m. news broadcasts until after the election.

“We put a moratorium on it. It’s just total inundation and exhausting,” Coyne said.

He added that a phenomenon of political advertising is “habituation.” The more we hear the same ads, the easier it becomes to tune them out. So the closer the election gets, the ads can start to feel more intense.

“They have to give you more. You’ve been exposed to it so much you don’t even want to listen or deal with it. They need to try to still elicit that reaction out of you even though they’ve been flooding us,” Coyne said.

Jane Owen, the director of the counseling center at Waynesburg University, agrees that relentless advertising is exhausting and stressful for people.

She also pointed to a general sense of fear that is creating stress.

“I think both sides are passionate about who they want to win, and really feel like there is going to be significant changes if the other person wins,” Owen said.

In speaking with students this year, Owen has certainly felt the unease many young people feel with the election.

“I have students on both ends of the continuum. It is absolutely weighing on them. Even to the point they have different views than their parents, and it’s causing conflict. Major conflict,” Owen said. “The other end of the spectrum: I hate politics, I’m not going to vote, it doesn’t matter. That’s the one I get more frustrated with.”

This is also reflected in the political activity, or lack thereof, on campus.

“The contrast from when I was in college … People campaigned on campus, and there were signs and buttons. That is not present here,” Owen said.

Coyne noted that it is easy to fall into cycles of endlessly reading through internet posts and headlines about the election, and that it is only going to stress you out even more.

Internet denizens will recognize this phenomenon as “doom scrolling.”

“You have to limit yourself and your exposure,” Coyne said.

He suggested unplugging, being in a green space or near a body of water.

“There are a lot of nice local parks in Washington,” Coyne said.

Doom scrollers will recognize this advice as being told they need to “touch grass.”

Owen recalled once having an international student several years ago while people were getting ready to cast their ballots. The student was puzzled at how worked up Americans seemed to get around elections.

After all, a president only serves a four-year term.

“She said, ‘Jane, in my country it is for life,'” Owen said. “That kind of put it in perspective.”

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