Stressful politics: Voters’ cortisol responses to the outcome of the 2008 United States Presidential election

Stanton, Steven J.; LaBar, Kevin S.; Saini, Ekjyot K.; Kuhn, Cynthia M.; Beehner, Jacinta C.

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.10.018

Cited by 65 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Research supports that current events, including election results, can impact health outcomes [2, 3]. For example, following the attacks on September 11th, health outcomes for Arab Americans worsened including lowered life expectancies and increased rates of premature births.…”

Section: How Has the Presidential Election Affected Young Americans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We will continue to explore the impact of political events on youth in the US through ongoing quantitative and qualitative data collection. This research adds to the limited evidence that election results can impact emotional and physical health [1–3], though more research is needed to investigate this phenomenon in a representative sample of youth and to examine the long-term effects.…”

Section: How Has the Presidential Election Affected Young Americans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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How has the presidential election affected young Americans?

DeJonckheere

Fisher

Chang

2018

Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health

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The 2016 presidential election season and subsequent political events have had physical and emotional impacts on youth. We collected qualitative insights from 14 to 24 year olds across the US related to these events over time. Open-ended probes were sent via text message at three time points before and after the 2016 presidential election. The majority of youth reported emotional stress during all three time points, and female participants were significantly more likely to experience emotional responses. White participants were more likely to report negative symptoms than their peers both pre-election and at 4-months post-election. While preliminary, the results indicate that feelings of stress, anxiety, and fear have persisted in the months following the election, particularly for young women. Additional research is needed to examine the long-term effects of political events on the emotional and physical health of youth.

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Section: How Has the Presidential Election Affected Young Americans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How Has the Presidential Election Affected Young Americans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How has the presidential election affected young Americans?

DeJonckheere

Fisher

Chang

2018

Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health

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“…Saliva samples were processed and radioimmuno assayed (see for details: Stanton, Beehner, Saini, Kuhn, & LaBar, 2009;Stanton, LaBar, Saini, Kuhn, & Beehner, 2010). Analytical sensitivity (B 0 -3 SD) was 2.93 pg/mL for testosterone and 0.04 ng/mL for cortisol.…”

Section: Physiological Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the identity of a sports spectator?

Appelbaum

Cain

Darling

et al. 2012

Personality and Individual Differences

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a b s t r a c tDespite the prominence of sports in contemporary society, little is known about the identity and personality traits of sports spectators. With a sample of 293 individuals, we examine four broad categories of factors that may explain variability in the reported amount of time spent watching sports. Using individual difference regression techniques, we explore the relationship between sports spectating and physiological measures (e.g., testosterone and cortisol), clinical self-report scales (ADHD and autism), personality traits (e.g., NEO ''Big Five''), and pastime activities (e.g., video game playing). Our results indicate that individuals who report higher levels of sports spectating tend to have higher levels of extraversion, and in particular excitement seeking and gregariousness. These individuals also engage more in complementary pastime activities, including participating in sports and exercise activities, watching TV/movies, and playing video games. Notably, no differences were observed in the clinical self-report scales, indicating no differences in reported symptoms of ADHD or autism for spectators and non-spectators. Likewise, no relationship was seen between baseline concentrations of testosterone or cortisol and sports spectating in our sample. These results provide an assessment of the descriptive personality dimensions of frequent sports spectators and provide a basic taxonomy of how these traits are expressed across the population.

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“…Given that political participation likely involves a complex combination of psychological factors that are associated with HPA activity, variation in HPA function may be predictive of the relatively stable individual differences in political involvement. Several studies have addressed the consequences of political participation on subsequent cortisol levels, demonstrating that cortisol levels are higher on election days than on nonelection days [33], that cortisol levels in supporters of losing candidates are elevated relative to cortisol levels in supporters of winning candidates [34], and that highly politically-partisan participants exhibit elevated cortisol after reading a post-election political essay, relative to reading a nonpolitical text passage [35]. To our knowledge, however, the notion that individual differences in the fundamental operating characteristics of the HPA axis are correlated with, and hence may be causally related to variation in the likelihood of engaging in political activity, has not been tested.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cortisol and politics: Variance in voting behavior is predicted by baseline cortisol levels

French

Smith

Alford

et al. 2014

Physiology & Behavior

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Participation in electoral politics is affected by a host of social and demographics variables, but there is growing evidence that biological predispositions may also play a role in behavior related to political involvement. We examined the role of individual variation in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress axis parameters in explaining differences in self-reported and actual participation in political activities. Self-reported political activity, religious participation, and verified voting activity in U.S. national elections were collected from 105 participants, who were subsequently exposed to a standardized (nonpolitical) psychosocial stressor. We demonstrated that lower baseline salivary cortisol in the late afternoon was significantly associated with increased actual voting frequency in six national elections, but not with self-reported non-voting political activity. Baseline cortisol predicted significant variation in voting behavior above and beyond variation accounted for by traditional demographic variables (particularly age of participant in our sample). Participation in religious activity was weakly (and negatively) associated with baseline cortisol. Our results suggest that HPA-mediated characteristics of social, cognitive, and emotional processes may exert an influence on a trait as complex as voting behavior, and that cortisol is a better predictor of actual voting behavior, as opposed to self-reported political activity.

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Stressful politics: Voters’ cortisol responses to the outcome of the 2008 United States Presidential election

Cited by 65 publications

References 29 publications

How has the presidential election affected young Americans?

How has the presidential election affected young Americans?

What is the identity of a sports spectator?

Cortisol and politics: Variance in voting behavior is predicted by baseline cortisol levels

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