Neuroscience explains why Americans ignore political news • Indiana Capital Chronicle

This conversation took place while I was speaking with a local TV station about why we saw fewer political road signs during this year’s election period, compared to previous ones.

I am a psychiatrist which studies and treats fear and anxiety. One of my top mental health recommendations to my patients during the 2016 and 2020 election cycles was to reduce their consumption of political information. I also tried to convince them that the five hours a day they spent watching cable news only left them helpless and terrified.

However, over the past two years, I have noticed a change: Many of my patients say they have become disconnected or too exhausted to do more than a quick read of political news or watch a time of their favorite political show.

Research supports my clinical experience: A Pew Research Study of 2020 showed that 66% of Americans were exhausted by political stress. Interestingly, those who don’t follow the news feel this same fatigue at an even higher percentage of 73%. In 20238 in 10 Americans described U.S. politics with negative words like “divisive,” “corrupt,” “messy,” and “polarized.”

The politics of fear

In my 2023 book, “FEAR: Understanding the Purpose of Fear and Harnessing the Power of Anxiety“, I explain how American politicians and the mainstream news media have I found an ally in fear: a very strong emotion that can be used to get our attention, keep us in tribal lines and make us follow, click, touch, watch and donate.

In recent decades, many people have felt a strong push toward tribalism, an “us versus them” way of viewing the world, pitting Americans against each other. This has brought us to a point where we no longer just disagree with each other. We hatecancel, block and attack those who disagree with us.

Information bubbles

It may seem like Fox News and MSNBC commentators are talking about the Americas on two different planets. The same goes for different social media feeds.

Many people are part of social media communities that are closed off from the world outside their homes and familiar social circles. Depending on people’s political views and what they search for or watch and read, social media algorithms provide them with content where everyone speaks and thinks the same way. If you hear about the other side, it’s just their worst attributes and behaviors.

The gap is so big that people are not even able to understand think about those who have other perspectives and find their logic or political beliefs unfathomable.

Many Americans have come to the point of believing that the other half of Americans are, at best, unintelligent and stupid; and at worst, immoral and bad.

Politics and identity

There was a time in American politics where two politicians or two neighbors may disagree, but nevertheless believe that the other is fundamentally good.

Over time, and more since the beginning of the 2000sthis ability to connect despite political beliefs has diminished.

Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans said in a 2022 Pew Research survey that a person’s political ideas are an indicator of their morality and character.

This 2022 Pew survey also shows that partisan animosity extends to judgments of character: 72% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats said they think members of the opposing party are more “immoral” than other Americans .

This is evident in the daily conversations of members of both political tribes: “How can I be friends with someone who wants to kill babies” or “How can I talk to someone who agrees with that?” that women are dying on a street corner.” a clinic parking lot.” We can no longer view a person’s political affiliation in the context of their humanity as a whole.

What psychology and neuroscience say

Fear because a deep-rooted survival mechanism takes priority over other brain functions.

Fear guides your memories, feelings, attention, and thoughts, and can cause you to keep watching, scrolling, and reading to monitor this perceived threat. Positive or neutral news could then become uninteresting because it is not important in your survival response. This has been the key to a person’s deep engagement with current fear-based politics.

But too much fear doesn’t keep someone engaged forever. This is due to another coping mechanism – something called “learned helplessness”.

In 1967, the American psychologist Martin Seligman exposed two groups of dogs to painful shocks. The dogs in group 1 could stop the shock by pressing a lever, which they quickly learned to do. But the dogs in Group 2 learned that they couldn’t control the start and end of the shock.

Then both groups were placed in a box divided into two halves by a small barrier, and the shock was applied to only one side of the box. Dogs in Group 1 – who had learned to stop shock in the previous experiment – ​​quickly learned to jump over the barrier on the non-shock side. But the dogs in group 2 didn’t even attempt it. They had learned that there was no point in trying.

This experiment has been replicated in different forms with other animals and humans with the same conclusion: when people feel that they cannot control the painful or frightening situation, they simply give up. During such experiments, the fear region of the brain – called the amygdala – is overactive. Meanwhile, brain areas regulating emotions, such as the prefrontal cortex, decrease activity under these circumstances.

Learned helplessness also means that brain mechanisms typically involved in regulating anxiety and depression don’t work as well.

When I work with patients who have suffered extended periods of intense anxiety, fear, trauma, and exhaustion, I see learned helplessness manifest in the form of depression, loss of motivation, fatigue, and withdrawal of engagement with the world around them.

The COVID-19 pandemic, more than a decade of intense political stress, polarizing social media and wars across the world, as well as public disillusionment with American politics and media, have led, I believe, to many people suffering from burnout and learned helplessness.

If you’re feeling politically exhausted, you’re not the problem. Don’t hesitate to disconnect from the noise.