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Anxiety about the outcome of the presidential election is ubiquitous these days. With all the uncertainties brought on by the pandemic and the election, anxiety is running high across the country in general. One way we try to deal with an unknowable future is to grasp for the security of what we can know—poll numbers give us the illusion of being able to know what will happen. We seek comfort in these numbers to quell our self-doubts about being able to cope with an uncertain future, when we might do better reaching for community.
No matter what side we are on, we are all invested in the outcome of the upcoming election. When we are overly preoccupied with poll numbers, we are looking to numbers to reassure us regarding an uncertain future—we are seeking emotional reassurance from an inanimate object.
Numbers provide us with a sense of objectivity—of knowing something outside of our subjective perceptions colored by our fears. They give us the sense that something is knowable, quantifiable. They give us the illusion of being able to know the future—like our candidate has enough supporters to get elected. They are something we feel we can count on (pun intended).
And yet, this is an illusion. The factors that impact our future are nearly infinite. It is not just about who wins the election. There are plenty of things that can go wrong that a president can’t fix. And yet, checking the polls give us a sense that we can measure where we stand—it momentarily helps quell our self-doubt about our ability to deal with the future.
Unforeseen Circumstances
In a life that is full of uncertainty, we try to be reasonable in our decision-making—we think things through and plan accordingly. And yet, we really don’t know how things will actually play out.
There is always the possibility that unforeseen circumstances will arise to derail our plans. Even when our strategy is going according to plan, there is no guarantee that we will ultimately succeed. When we think, “so far, so good,” we give voice to this doubt regarding the future success of our plans.
Polls
When we repeatedly check the polls, we are acting on our anxiety about the outcome of the election. When the numbers go up in our favor, we may feel a little hopeful, when they go down—we despair. And yet, we know that the polls are fallible—they don’t completely reassure us, so, we check again and again.
Although the polls give us the illusion of knowing something momentarily, we know that they only give us an indication of what things were like during the sliver of time the poll was taken, not what they will be like on Election Day. More importantly, they don’t tell us how we will be able to cope with an outcome we fear.
Take Doug, he is extremely anxious about the election and checks the polls several times a day on multiple websites. He says he does this despite not trusting the accuracy of the polls—especially after the polling mistakes of the last election. He admits that polls don’t foretell the future. And yet, he keeps checking the polls. “I know I am grasping at straws.” "But," he explains, “it gives me something to do—it’s a break from worrying about the future we are going to be living in.” Ultimately, he is worried about his ability to cope with a future in which his candidate doesn’t win.
Self-doubts
Self-doubt is ultimately at the root of our anxiety about future uncertainties. Self-doubt arises mainly from a negative self-perception—we don’t have a sense of optimism about our judgment or abilities to cope, especially with the unknown. When we don’t feel secure within ourselves, we are more likely to interpret moments of uncertainty negatively, as a sign of pending doom.
When we have a stable sense of self, not knowing is less of a problem—we give ourselves the benefit of the doubt—we meet uncertainty with self-encouragement.
Community
Displacing our concerns onto the polls leaves us seeking reassurance from an inanimate concept, when, in actuality, a community of like-minded people working together to help each other is what can make us truly safer. The comfort we get from the numbers is never long-lasting—unless those numbers reflect living breathing people.
Instead of repeatedly checking the polls and eking out what little reassurance we can garner from them, we would be better off working on the underlying issues. We can actively work on using our anxiety as a sign that we need to be more self-encouraging and get involved with the campaign. We can band together with the people in our social circles to set a shared intention to support each other in the coming months and years.
