Political news is ruining your mental health.
What were you reading right before this article? Probably some news, most likely about the war in Iran, which is dominating coverage, and ancillary topics such as the effect on the economy and markets. Along the way, you most likely encountered and felt compelled to consume some political news and opinions. I don’t mean humdrum policy stuff: what Congress voted on today, or the like. Instead, I mean horse-race politics and lightning-rod punditry.
And this lowered your well-being.
My confidence that you read about politics owes to the fact that political dilettantism—closely following who’s up, who’s down, who created the latest outrage—is a national obsession. We can’t get enough of “monitoring the situation.” In a 2023 survey of American adults, about a third said they follow national politics “very closely.” Meanwhile, 62 percent of Americans consume news about politics and government “often” or “extremely often,” which is 30 percentage points above the next highest area of news interest.
