Response: "How psychologists explain the unique pain of election heartbreak"

Two weeks ago, Vox released a new article commenting on the psychology behind the emotions people feel after election outcomes on their website. I thought it was an extremely interesting article as it applied greatly to the recent US election in which not only US citizens but people around the world were faced with "profound election heartbreak" regarding the outcome.

The article's two authors Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina looked towards psychological theories as to why people feel so passionately and emotionally towards the outcome of elections. They commented on something called the "false consensus effect" in which people "tend to overestimate the extent to which other people share our views", therefore when the outcome is something that we do not expect, we are often left completely in shock.

Previously to this article, I would have never even thought that there was an actual psychology theory behind why people feel so passionately towards this, as I previously just thought that this strong emotion was due to the significance of the event- i.e. a presidential election.

Another significant part of the article was that they mentioned a study by Harvard Kennedy School behavioural scientist Todd Rogers who studied people's emotions (primarily happiness) after a "political loss" in comparison to two significant tragedies in America- the Newton shooting as well as the Boston Marathon bombing.

To me, the results of this study was shocking as he found that "the sadness impact of losing an election was twice as intense as the sadness [they] felt after the national tragedies". For something as tragic as an act of terrorism to have lesser the amount of emotional impact in comparison to a political loss is very surprising, however the reason that Rogers believes this to be the reason is that political losses are connected with one's personal identity which is very interesting.

However as a psychology student I can't help but question the complete validity of the results as emotion (especially happiness) is a very difficult thing to quantity or measure. Despite this, the results obtained are intriguing to say the least, especially at this current time after the 2016 US election.

In conclusion, this article really made me question the views I have towards the outcome of the election in comparison to other events, and also made me aware of this "false consensus effect', as I (like many) felt unsettled of the confronting results of the election.

To read the original Vox article, visit: http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/11/13573850/psychologists-election-heartbreak-cartoon

#psychology #response #blogging #uselection