Have you ever felt that a political election not only tested your patience but also your faith? A recent study published in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality examines this very question, revealing that the high stakes and polarized nature of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential elections had notable effects on individuals’ religious and spiritual struggles. The research suggests that the tumultuous atmosphere of these elections stirred significant religious and spiritual conflicts for many, indicating a profound intersection between political beliefs and spiritual well-being.
Prior studies have highlighted the intense emotions and societal divisions that can arise from political elections, with outcomes often evoking strong feelings of hope, anger, anxiety, or despair among the electorate. In their new study, researchers aimed to explore the specific impact of political elections on religious and spiritual (R/S) struggles.
“I wanted to extend our research on spiritual struggles into topics related to current events. In this study, my team and I wanted to understand whether and why U.S. adults might experience spiritual struggles in response to Presidential election results,” said study author Julie J. Exline, a professor of psychological sciences at Case Western Reserve University.
To conduct this investigation, the researchers utilized Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to recruit two separate cohorts of U.S. adults for surveys conducted after each election but before the inauguration of the president-elect. The 2016 portion of the study had 504 participants. For the 2020 election, the study included 618 participants. The surveys inquired about participants’ reactions to the election outcomes and their political and religious affiliations.
The study employed the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS-14) scale to measure six domains of R/S struggle in response to the election results:
- Divine Struggles: This domain involves conflicts or negative feelings toward God or a higher power. It includes feelings of anger, abandonment, or punishment by God, questioning God’s love or fairness, and struggles with understanding God’s presence in the face of suffering.
- Demonic Struggles: These struggles relate to perceptions of being tempted, attacked, or influenced by demonic forces or evil spirits. It encompasses fears of demonic possession or oppression and concerns about spiritual warfare.
- Interpersonal Struggles: This area covers conflicts with others about religious or spiritual beliefs and practices. It includes feeling judged, misunderstood, or rejected by a religious community, tensions with family or friends over religious differences, and negative experiences with religious leaders or institutions.
- Moral Struggles: Moral struggles involve internal conflicts about right and wrong, guilt over moral failings, and difficulties in living up to one’s moral or ethical standards. This can include wrestling with religious teachings on morality that conflict with personal beliefs or societal norms.
- Ultimate Meaning Struggles: These struggles pertain to questions about life’s purpose, the meaning of suffering, and existential doubts. Individuals may grapple with finding a sense of direction or meaning in life, especially in the face of adversity or life transitions.
- Doubt: This domain includes doubts about religious or spiritual beliefs, teachings, and practices. It involves questioning the existence of God or a higher power, the validity of religious texts, and the authenticity of one’s own or others’ religious experiences.
The findings of the study indicated that presidential elections can indeed trigger or exacerbate R/S struggles among individuals. Participants reported a variety of R/S struggles related to the outcomes of the elections, with interpersonal struggles being the most commonly endorsed. This suggests that the divisive and polarizing nature of these elections not only affected societal and communal relationships but also deeply impacted individuals’ internal spiritual and moral landscapes.
The research highlighted specific predictors that were associated with increased R/S struggles. Notably, those who voted for the losing candidate in both elections reported experiencing more R/S struggles, indicating that the disappointment and distress of electoral defeat extended into the realm of personal religious and spiritual turmoil.
Other significant predictors of R/S struggle included negative reactions to the election outcomes, higher levels of religious engagement, political anger, and attributions of the election results to divine or demonic forces. These findings suggest that the way individuals interpret and emotionally respond to political events can profoundly influence their spiritual well-being.
“Many people experience spiritual struggles in their daily lives: These might include religious doubts, anger at religious people, moral challenges, feeling punished or disappointed by God, feeling tempted by the devil, or questioning whether life has any deeper meaning,” Exline told PsyPost. “This study, which focused on the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential elections, showed that election results can trigger spiritual struggles for some people.”
“In response to both elections, people reported more spiritual struggles when they were disappointed with election outcomes and had politically-focused anger at other people. Spiritual struggles were also greater for people who saw the devil or God playing some type of harmful role in the election results.”
Demographic factors also played a role in the intensity and nature of R/S struggles. The study found differences in R/S struggles based on religious affiliation, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. For instance, Christians and African American participants reported more R/S struggles compared to their non-religious and White counterparts, respectively. This underscores the complex ways in which identity factors intersect with political and spiritual experiences, potentially heightening vulnerability to R/S struggles for certain groups.
Interestingly, Exline and her colleagues found no overall difference in the level of R/S struggles between the two election years, despite the unique contexts and outcomes of each election. This suggests a consistent pattern of how divisive political climates can impact spiritual and religious experiences across different political cycles. However, the specific nature of these struggles varied, reflecting the changing political and social dynamics surrounding each election.
However, the study is not without its limitations. The cross-sectional nature of the study means it cannot definitively show how these struggles evolve over time.
“Although we had surveys from both 2016 and 2020, the surveys drew from two different groups of U.S. adults,” Exline said. “A longitudinal study, where we could survey the same group of people in response to multiple elections, would be ideal (though expensive and difficult). Also, these were convenience samples of U.S. adults who had Internet access. An important next step will be to apply these spiritual struggle ideas to political polarization in our country more broadly, vs. focusing only on election results.”
The study, “Religious and Spiritual Struggles Around the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential Elections,” was authored by Julie J. Exline, Nick Stauner, Joshua A. Wilt, and Joshua B. Grubbs.