Stress

Why Rudeness from Political Candidates Is Bad for Everyone

Research shows how to recover from the negative effects of politicial insults.

Posted August 26, 2024 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano

Key points

Research shows that witnessing rudeness can harm us.
Seeing rude behavior from political authority figures can be especially damaging.
In this election year, we can detach from rudeness and use strategies to restore our balance.

Source: Photo by Gage Skidmore. Permission on Wikimedia Commons.

Rudeness and disrespect can have long-term effects on people. When someone insults, bullies, or humiliates us, the effects can linger for days, weeks, even years, leading to recurrent feelings of hurt, resentment, and self-doubt. Even witnessing an act of rudeness can have harmful effects, research shows. Seeing rude behavior adversely affects our performance and can cause us to react in fearful, aggressive, and hostile ways (Porath & Erez, 2009).

Social learning theory explains that we receive behavioral cues from the people around us. If their behavior is rude and aggressive, we may behave rudely and aggressively as well (Bandura, 1973). In addition, neuroscience research has shown that we process negative emotions with our amygdala, the brain’s alarm system.

The amygdala responds to perceived threats with fear and defensiveness, activating the sympathetic nervous system’s stress response of fight, flight, or freeze (LeDoux, 1996). To focus on survival, the stress response can shut down higher brain centers, compromising our ability to think clearly and make reasoned decisions.

The Effects of Witnessing Rudeness

Witnessing rudeness reduces our ability to think rationally, perform routine tasks, and devise creative solutions to problems, research in organizational psychology shows. It also decreases citizenship behavior, our ability to trust and work cooperatively, while increasing aggressive reactions to others (Porath & Erez, 2009).

Such adverse effects from witnessing rude behavior is not limited to the workplace. They likely explain the strong correlation between the increased use of smartphones and social media and the rise of anxiety and depression among young people (Twenge et al., 2010; Twenge, 2017).

The Effects of Witnessing Political Rudeness Today

Organizational researchers Porath and Erez (2009) warn of the highly harmful effects when we witness rudeness from authority figures. They recommend that organizations pay special attention to the behavior of CEOs and managers, powerful role models whose rude behavior can severely undermine employees’ performance.

Their research findings are particularly relevant in today's election season, filled with rudeness from political candidates, especially Donald Trump, who lashes out at opponents with name-calling, insults, and personal attacks. Political rudeness can fill us with fear and defensiveness, interfering with our ability to think clearly, solve our problems creatively, and cooperate as citizens.

What Can You Do About This?

It’s important to be an informed citizen but detaching from political insults by changing the channel or turning off a device gives you the chance to restore your emotional balance. Here are some options for doing that:

Take a few slow deep breaths, focusing on your heart. It has been shown to reduce stress and restore personal balance (Childre et al, 2016).
Silently repeat a mantra, a short, spiritual word or phrase. The technique has been found to reduce stress in busy hospital workers and even significantly alleviate PTSD in war veterans (Bormann et al, 2006; 2013).
Pause for a moment of gratitude. In numerous experiments, practicing gratitude has been shown to reduce stress and restore a sense of balance and emotional well-being (Emmons, 2007).

Choosing to detach and take positive steps to restore emotional well-being can help us become healthier and more balanced in our personal and political lives.

References

Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bormann, J. E., Oman, D., Kemppainen, J. K., Becker, S., Gershwin, M., & Kelly, A. (2006). Mantram repetition for stress management in veterans and employees: A critical incident study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 53 (5), 502-512.

Bormann, J. E., Thorpe, S. R, Wetherell, J. L., Golshan, S., & Lang, A. J. (2013). Meditation-based mantram intervention for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder: A randomized trial. Psychological Trauma Theory: Research, Practice, and Policy, 5, 259-267.

Childre, D., Martin, H., Rozman, D., & McCraty, R. (2016). Heart intelligence: Connecting with the intuitive guidance of the heart. Waterfront Press.

Emmons, R. A. (2007). Thanks!: How practicing gratitude can make you happier. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Photo. Supporters of President of the United States Donald Trump at a "Keep America Great" rally at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. By Gage Skidmore. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_supporters_(49567387501).jpg

Porath, C. L. & Erez, A. (2009). Overlooked but not untouched: How rudeness reduces onlookers’ performance on routine and creative tasks. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109, 29-44.

Twenge, J. M., Gentile, B., DeWall, C. N., Ma, D., Lacefield, K., & Schurtz, D. R. (2010). Birth cohort increases in psychopathology among young Americans, 1938–2007: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of the MMPI. Clinical psychology review, 30(2), 145-154.

Twenge, J. (2017). iGen: Why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy--and completely unprepared for adulthood--and what that means for the rest of us. New York: Simon & Schuster.