‘Play, Read, Vote’: Panelists Discuss Election Anxiety at Harvard Public Health School

Political analysts, public health officials, and pollsters discussed navigating election anxiety at a panel at the Harvard School of Public Health on Tuesday.

The panel — moderated by journalist and Institute of Politics fellow Eugene Scott — covered the impacts of political anxiety on mental health and political discourse, as well as strategies to navigate the stress of election season.

Participants included University Professor Danielle S. Allen, IOP Director of Polling John Della Volpe, pollster Kirsten Soltis Anderson, and former American Public Health Association President Chris Chanyasulkit.

Della Volpe — whose research focuses on youth polling — explained that “young people today feel this insecurity and instability about the future.”

“They feel like all of the problems that older generations have are trickling down to them,” he said. “They feel this significant responsibility to have a position to argue each side and to participate in that, and that is incredibly stressful.”

Anderson explained that political anxiety manifests itself physically similar to the way people think of diseases.

“A lot of studies show that you have high depression and anxiety, you might end up using substance misuse and alcohol more,” Anderson said. “So it’s all very much related.”

Anderson added that trends in media consumption have been partly responsible for the increase in election-related anxiety. Since algorithms tailor information live in a way that newspapers do not, Anderson said this leads to more emotional reactions among users.

“I believe that right now, a big driver of the anxiety we are seeing is the ability to doom scroll,” Anderson said.

Still, Anderson said voting can help.

“Communities that vote more,” he said, “are more inclusive; they are healthier.”

Della Volpe emphasized the need for Americans to focus on local elections as well as national ones.

“Sometimes, I feel like there are people in this country who are paying more attention to some elected official that’s always on cable news than they are their own local — anxious about something that may not even happen in their own community,” Della Volpe said.

During the event, Chanyasulkit drew on her experience at the APHA to suggest strategies for reducing election strategies.

“A lot of what I was able to do over the year as APHA president was to tell my initiative of ways to make us a healthier democracy — happier folks who are more engaged — was to play, read, and vote for health,” Chanyasulkit said.

Specifically, Chanyasulkit told the audience to “take a moment.”

“In particular, it’d be great if you played with someone else. You know, I’ve heard Pickleball is great,” Chanyasulkit added.

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.