New research provides evidence that who a person voted for in the 2020 presidential election in the United States is associated with self-reported mental health outcomes. The study found that those who voted for Donald Trump were significantly less likely than their counterparts to report better mental health compared to before the 2020 election. The new findings appear in Political Research Quarterly.
“There have been a few studies on previous presidential elections (2016, 2012, 2008) and health,” explained lead researcher Aaron Weinschenk, the Ben J. and Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
“Costas Panagopoulos and I were interested in looking at the 2020 election given the incredibly emotionally-charged and contentious nature of the election (and the aftermath). In short, we wanted to know whether people were impacted by the most recent presidential election. We focused on self-reported mental and general health, two important but distinct aspects of an individual’s health.”
The findings of the new study are based on a nationally representative survey of 1,750 American adults fielded between December 11-16, 2020. The survey asked respondents to indicate whether their general health and their mental health was “better,” “about the same,” or “worse” now compared to before the 2020 election. It also collected data on a host of other variables, such as vote choice, the belief that Joe Biden won the election, political ideology, and socio-demographic factors.
Most people indicated that their general health and mental health had not significantly changed in the wake of the presidential election. Specifically, 87% reported that their general health was “about the same,” while 71% reported that their mental health was “about the same.”
However, the researchers observed substantial differences in mental health, but not general health, between Trump supporters and Biden supporters.
Those who voted for Biden and those who agreed that the Biden won the election were more likely than those who voted for Trump and those who disagreed that the Biden won the election to report improved mental health. Among Biden voters, 23% reported better mental health compared to before the election. Among Trump voters, only 7% reported better mental health. Similarly, among those who believed Biden won the election, 19% reported better mental health. But among those who believed Biden lost the election, 7% reported better mental health.
A logistic regression analysis provided evidence of “a negative and statistically significant effect, indicating that Trump voters report worse mental health compared to Biden voters following the 2020 election,” the researchers noted.
“Elections can impact individual health,” Weinschenk told PsyPost. “In the paper, for example, we find that those who supported the winning candidate reported better mental health than their counterparts. Similarly, those who agree that Biden won the presidential election were more likely than their counterparts to report better mental health. Importantly, these relationships hold up even when we control for many other important political predispositions (e.g., ideology, partisanship, political interest) and demographics (e.g., age, sex, employed/unemployed, race, income, education, etc.).”
The respondents were also asked whether the political divide between Republicans and Democrats was much greater now, greater now, about the same, less now, or much less now than in the past.
“Although our main focus was on the impact of supporting the winning/losing candidate on health, we also examined whether perceptions of polarization were related to mental and general health,” Weinschenk said. “We found that who believe that polarization is much greater now than in the past were more likely than their counterparts to report worse mental (but not general) health. It appears that some features of our current political system (beyond elections) impact health.”
As with any study, however, the new research includes some caveats.
“We used data from a cross-sectional survey,” Weinschenk explained. “Thus, we have measures at just one point in time. So, we do not know how long the changes to health we detect persist. It would be particularly valuable to collect data on the same respondents over time so that researchers could try to understand whether (and how) health outcomes change over time in response to political events and developments.”
“It could be interesting to explore how different types of elections (congressional, gubernatorial, etc.) impact health. It would be valuable to know whether the health effects of elections are widespread or constrained to the most visible types of elections.”
The study, “Health and Election Outcomes: Evidence from the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election“, was authored by Costas Panagopoulos and Aaron C. Weinschenk.
