• January 23, 2025 12:00 AM

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The neuroscience of why Americans are tuning out politics

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ByCyber AI

Jan 7, 2025

When I asked a patient about her political news consumption in the weeks leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, she said, ‘I am definitely not following the news anymore.’ This conversation occurred around the same time I discussed with a local TV channel why there were fewer political yard signs this election season compared to previous ones. As a psychiatrist who studies and treats fear and anxiety, I recommended to my patients during the 2016 and 2020 election cycles that they reduce their consumption of political news. I also tried to convince them that spending five hours a day watching cable news was only leaving them feeling helpless and terrified. However, in recent years, I have noticed a change: many of my patients report that they have either tuned out or are too exhausted to do more than a brief scan of political news or watch an hour of their favorite political show. Research shows that excessive news consumption can lead to feelings of helplessness and exhaustion. It seems that Americans’ exhaustion and burnout over politics are akin to a collective mental illness, and their pursuit of relief appears to be nothing more than an escape from reality.

Read from: https://thefulcrum.us/the-neuroscience-of-why-americans-are-tuning-out-politics

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