"Given today's political climate, anger is evident in terms of protests, social media postings, podcasts, and the mainstream media. During such times, there appears to be an escalation of negativity bias; that is, finding points of view that reflect your own perspective. Expressing anger-and finding others who agree with your negative point of view-may have an immediate cathartic effect. However, clinicians and researchers report that anger is destructive to our physical health as well as psychological well-being."
"When people become angry, they can fall into the "misery loves company" category and begin seeking out other stories or news outlets that bolster or give rise to negativity bias. According to the American Political Science Review, Fournier et al, 2020: "Recent research suggests that individual variation in negativity biases is correlated with political ideology: persons who have stronger physiological reactions to negative stimuli, this work argues, hold more conservative attitudes. However, such results have mostly been encountered in the United States.""
Political upheaval amplifies public anger across protests, social media, podcasts, and mainstream outlets. Anger fuels negativity bias by encouraging people to seek perspectives that mirror their own, producing immediate catharsis when shared. Clinicians report that persistent anger harms physical health and psychological well-being. Anger manifests as chronic irritation, rumination about past triggers, or intermittent explosive outbursts. Research links individual negativity biases to political ideology, with stronger physiological reactions to negative stimuli associated with more conservative attitudes in some studies. Experimental evidence finds that political anger undermines democratic processes. Gratitude is presented as an antidote to counterbalance entrenched negativity.
Read at Psychology Today
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