Anticipatory stress during an election: A daily diary study

Abstract

Previous research on election stress has focused on reacting to stressors that already occurred, whereas the forecasting of future stressors and associated responses have been underexamined. Leveraging the 2018 U.S. mid‐term election, we examined anticipatory stress response, operationalised as the within‐person association between daily stressors forecasting and negative affect (NA). We also explore whether such responses might be related to time, partisanship and political orientation. Participants were 125 adults in the U.S. who provided 1056 daily reports in a 29‐day daily diary study surrounding the election. Results indicated that daily forecasts of election stressors contributed to increased NA independent of election stressor exposure. Election stressor forecasting was more pronounced during pre‐election days and the election day than post‐election days, as well as greater in conservatives than liberals. Coping with anticipatory stress may be important for managing election stress.