Over his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the 538 average of Georgia polls.
Later tonight, the former president will be holding his final campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which will air live here on C-SPAN 2.
This election night, C-SPAN delivers something different.
Not just the presidential race, but the state races that will decide the balance of power in Congress.
No political pundits, no spin, no commercials.
Just the candidates, the results, and you.
Follow C-SPAN this election night beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern, live Tuesday, on TV, online, or on the free C-SPAN Now video app.
This election night, track up-to-the-minute detailed results for the national campaign down to the congressional district level on cspan.org slash results.
That's results by state, presidential, senate, house, and governor's races.
Stay informed on election night online at c-span.org slash results.
Joining us now to discuss managing election stress and anxiety is Dr. Arthur Evans.
He's the CEO of the American Psychological Association.
Dr. Evans, thank you so much for being with us.
Thank you.
I'm glad to be here.
Your organization just released its newest stress in America.
The survey is out now.
Before we get to the findings, tell us about how that survey was conducted.
Well, it was conducted back in August, the first part of August, the first couple of weeks of August, about over 3,000 people.
And one of the things that we do so that we can talk specifically about subgroups is we over sample certain populations so that we have enough in the sample that we can reliably say that this is what we believe this group is saying and thinking.
And one of the things that the survey looked at is the relation to election stress that's causing Americans.
Here are some of the findings.
41% reported the state of the nation has made them consider moving to a different country.
39% say the political environment in their state has made them consider moving to a different state.
64% feel their rights are under attack.
82% worry people may be biasing their values and opinions on false and inaccurate information.
32% say the political climate has caused strain between them and family members.
Talk to us about this report and your takeaway from those findings.
Sure, that's actually a very good summary of what we found.
You know, what I would say is that election stress is bipartisan.
One of the things that was very striking in this survey is that on most of the questions that you talked about there, there are not a lot of differences between Democrats and Republicans and independents for that matter.
So we know this is a phenomenon that is affecting all of us in the population.
The other thing that was really striking is that people are really thinking about the consequences of the election in pretty dire terms.
72% saying that they think that this election will end in violence.
And again, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents think that.
Over half of people thinking that this election could be the end of democracy.
Again, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents saying that.
So there is a lot of consistency in how people are viewing these issues, even if we have pretty elevated levels of stress around the election itself.
And Dr. Evans' research shows that the distress we are feeling about the state of politics can harm both our physical and mental health.
How can that present?
What can it look like?
Well, we know that stress can affect both our physical and our mental health.
It can affect our cardiovascular health.
It can affect chronic diseases like diabetes.
We know it can affect our mental health, anxiety, depression, and substance use.
So we really have to be concerned about election stress because it is stress, and we know the stress can have a very negative impact on our overall health, both physical and mental.
And you mentioned that this stress is pretty much evenly spread out among individuals, regardless of the political party that they consider themselves under.
But what about other groups, younger generations, older generations, men versus women?
What did the survey tell you about those groups?
Sure.
So what the survey said, one of the interesting findings is that historically, what you find is that older adults have the least amount of stress.
So the older we get, the less stress we tend to experience.
And data show that pretty consistently over time.
One of the things that was interesting about this survey is that on the question about concerns about the election ending in violence, actually adults, older adults, 65 plus, had the highest proportion of people saying that they were concerned about that.
And the younger generation actually said that they had less.
So one of the things that that says is that on that particular question, older adults actually think that that's more likely and that they're experiencing more stress about it.
So it really makes you wonder for people who have gone through 9-11 and all these other events, what are they seeing about the current election that would lead them to that conclusion?
We also saw demographic differences around race and gender, around race, for example.
We saw that African Americans and Latinos are more likely to believe that their vote is going to matter, that their vote counts.
There weren't large differences, but there were significant differences on questions like that.
So even though we have these sort of big numbers, even though that there is pretty much agreement along the political lines around what's important, what's causing people stress, there are these demographic differences in the population.
We are talking about managing election stress and anxiety with our guest, Dr. Arthur Evans, CEO of the American Psychological Association.
If you have a question or a comment for him, you can start calling in now.
The lines, they are broken down by region if you are in the eastern or central time zone.
The line 202748-8000.
And if you are in the mountain or Pacific time zone, 202-748-8001.
Dr. Evans, we're just a couple days from the election, so people may be feeling that peak stress right now.
How long does the stress usually last?
When does it start to get better?
You know, one of the things that's really interesting in the data in the survey is that yes, we see this peak in stress levels around the election cycle, but a lot of the phenomena around stress around the political environment is actually carrying into our daily lives.
You mentioned the data that say that 40% of Americans have contemplated moving out of the country or out of their state because of the political environment.
We also know that about a third of people are saying they are reducing their interactions with their family members or they're having stress in the interactions with their family members.
So we're seeing people report that the relationships that they have both with friends, about half of people saying that they are spending less time with their friends because of political differences, and people even saying who they date is affected by their political viewpoints.
So what we're seeing is it's not just the election, but it's how the political environment largely is affecting our daily lives even after the election cycle.
Our first caller up for you is Ronald in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Good morning, Ronald.
Yes, good morning.
I'd like to get some advice.
You know, it started in the 2020 election when Donald Trump was elected, before he's elected, actually.
And my neighbor down the street took down his American flag and put up a Trump flag.
I took a picture of it, and I want to post how unpatriotic that is to take a, you know, take American flag down to whatever on my post.
And in turn, it was like an army of neighbors coming down to my street, you know, almost attacking my wife wanting to know, we need to take that post down and laugh, you know, and that started there.
In turn, we go up this year to every time Trump was indicted, the neighbors and stuff would run around with their Trump flags, intimidating people, saying how strong they are.
You know, Harris people do not do that, as far as I know.
It ain't around here.
We don't try to intimidate people, and it's a stress factor brought upon our neighbors, not necessarily the campaigners, but our neighbors are so gullible.
What do you got?
You got any advice for us?
It's not the TV.
Yeah, you know, unfortunately, what we're seeing is that more and more people are engaging in that kind of activity.
And in fact, the survey talked about just a large majority of people really being concerned about the civility that we're seeing.
You know, I think some of this belongs to our political leaders.
I think they have to turn down some of the rhetoric around the elections.
But the other part of it is we really have to think about the bigger picture here.
And the bigger picture is at the end of the day, we all still have to live together.
We all still want the same things for our families.
And in fact, again, the survey showed that there's a lot of agreement on what the issues are.
What we disagree on is how to get there.
So what I would hope is that we can step back, take a look at the big picture, what is really important, and really try to be much more civil.
One of the silver linings in the survey was that even though 80% of people believe that their political viewpoints are important and that that affects their relationships, about an equal number of people believe that we should still have the conversation.
So even though people, with people who disagree with them, I should say.
And so even though there is what we see as this vitriol and anxiety and those kinds of things about the election, people still believe that they should be able to talk to people who disagree with them politically.
And so that gives us hope that if people understand some strategies to do that, that we can start to make a turn in what we're seeing.
And Dr. Evans, to that point, right now, because there may be so much stress going around and people aren't wanting to have those conversations now, what advice do you have on how to repair a relationship that may have been impacted by the election once we get past it?
Sure.
And I think that point that you made about getting past the election is very important.
Trying to have those conversations now is probably not going to be very fruitful.
A couple of things that I would say to really think about what matters and where you agree as opposed to where you don't agree.
What I have found over my career, particularly I've worked in political environments quite a bit, actually 20 years I spent in political environments.
And most of the time we come into those kinds of situations thinking about where our differences are and starting the conversation there.
And if we step back and think about where are we similar and how can we start the conversation on the things that we agree on, you actually get a lot further.
Most people are probably going to agree on maybe 80% of the things.
Again, people may not agree on how to approach those things, but there are a lot of things that people will agree on.
The other thing is to approach those conversations, not trying to convince the other person, but really trying to listen and try to understand.
If you think about it, most people have pretty set political views.
You know, I've heard some of the callers right before this segment.
They're probably not going to change their viewpoints around who they're supporting politically.
But they can step back some and try to understand why people who think differently than them have those positions.
So I think it really is about trying to understand, try to listen, and then trying to find common ground where there is agreement.
Roland in Detroit, Michigan.
Good morning, Roland.
All right, Grant Rising.
Dr. Evans, I have something for you.
I'm glad you're here to discuss this.
There has been an abundance of flyers, mailers, called voter participation.
And it says in commercials, too, if your vote is private, who you vote for is private, but whether you vote or not is public.
To me, that is stressful.
It almost like we're going to profile you.
You're going to have a lower or a higher social score.
And this time around is really crazy.
Have you heard of that campaign, voter participation?
And don't you think it's not cool?
Yeah.
Well, you know, it's really helping to educate people about the political system.
And in our political system, we do track whether you vote.
We don't know how you voted.
And so it's really more of an educational campaign to let you know what the reality is around how our political process works.
And Dr. Evans, for somebody like Roland who is feeling some election-related, political-related stress, they're not necessarily tuning in and watching actively.
They're just going about their day-to-day life.
They open the mailbox and there's something in there that maybe triggers stress.
How can people best deal with that political related stress and anxiety?
What are some coping strategies?
Yeah, you know, there are actually a lot of things that we can do to manage stress.
The first thing is to recognize that we are experiencing stress.
One of the reasons we do the survey is to highlight for people what people are experiencing stress about, and it gives us an opportunity to have these kind of conversations.
Most of us have our own signs that we are experiencing stress.
For example, I know that when I become more cynical, for example, I'm probably experiencing stress because I'm typically not cynical, a cynical person.
And so this can manifest in different ways for different people.
It could be that people start to increase the amount that they're drinking.
It could be that they are much shorter with their kids or their co-workers.
But all of us need to be aware of that.
And if you're not aware, simply ask the people around you.
They will tell you what are the signs that you're experiencing stress.
Secondly, it's important to do the things that we do to manage stress more generally.
Diet, exercise, sleep, just fundamental and very important in terms of us having a baseline.
Around political stress in particular, really being able to manage that and to be much more conscious about how we manage that.
For example, rather than just sitting at your computer or with your phone and going through article after article, you might want to set a timer so that you don't look up and it's been an hour or two hours that you've been doing what we call Zoom scrolling, just looking at article after article.
There are things that you can do to make sure that you are staying socially connected, which we know is a really important way to help us manage our stress.
One of the things that is going to be important for this election in particular is knowing that we're probably not going to know the outcome of the election on election night or how many days after that.
And one of the things that raises our anxiety is uncertainty.
So if we know that we're going into a period where there may be some uncertainty, we can plan for that.
We can plan for the fact that we may not know and that this is not going to be over.
So the main thing is to really be conscious about this, to understand some of the strategies at the American Psychological Association.
We put this kind of information on our website so that people can be much more knowledgeable about strategies they can use to reduce stress.
And it's really important to just be aware of how this stress is impacting on our lives.
Robin, and it's Syracuse, New York.
Good morning, Robin.
Hi.
This is kind of bizarre because this election has never affected me this way before.
I could deal with it with other people and usually you can just walk away.
But when it's a family member and you're from a close group and they have such, it's not even Republican or Democrat.
It's just bizarre feeling, not feelings, but it's what they want.
You know, they want the United States actually to go under because they think that we deserve it.
And it just, I just don't want to talk to her anymore.
I can't stand it.
I can deal with everything else with the family members that I love and that I would give a kidney or anything for.
I just want to block them out of my life and I just don't know what to do.
That's it.
Thank you.
Yeah.
And, you know, and I hear how stressful and distressing that is for you.
I think, I mean, you said something that was really important, that despite the differences that you have with your family members, you still care deeply about them.
And, you know, maybe that's the place to start.
And, you know, the issues around the political differences can be that way.
I think many of us have experienced that.
And again, the data show that.
So I would really encourage you to have a conversation that is about agreeing to disagree and agreeing that your relationship with your family members is much more important than the differences that you have from a political standpoint.
And I would frame the conversation that way, because any other way becomes a process where one side is trying to convince the other side, and that's probably not going to work.
I think people are pretty set around how they view, but if you can get past that and have that other conversation, I think that's the place to focus.
Dr. Evans, where are some resources?
Where can individuals go to get more information for callers like Robin who is looking for maybe how to best handle some of these situations?
Sure.
You can go to our website, apa.org.
That's for the American Psychological Association.org.
You can also go to the NIMH.
They have a really great website and they talk about stress there.
CDC also has information on stress.
So there are a lot of resources out there.
One resource that I also want to make sure that we mention is for election workers.
One of the things that we're seeing is that election workers are under a tremendous amount of stress.
We saw that during the last election.
We're seeing that now we're hearing reports of people being harassed at polling stations.
We're hearing people having their yards damaged who are election workers.
So a lot of stress for that group of individuals as well.
And we created a video to help them manage the stress related to that and to manage difficult situations at the polling place.
And you can get that on our YouTube channel or you can Google Election Worker and APA and you should be able to find it that way as well.
Fred in Riverside, California.
Good morning, Fred.
Hi, good morning.
Thanks for taking my phone call here.
Good morning to the guests.
Good morning.
Good morning.
My question was about this term we hear in pop culture called Trump derangement syndrome.
You know, what is the last politically charged term for that phenomenon?
And what are some maybe some factors that would lead to something like that beyond media consumption?
Because it seems like when I talk to some Kamala supporters that are within the black community, it's a very sassy, angry tone that I get back.
I'm just curious about like the real peer-reviewed science behind something like that.
Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear the term that you used.
He said the Trump derangement syndrome.
Oh, okay.
Actually, I haven't heard.
That's a term that I haven't heard.
I'm not quite sure exactly what it means.
probably means based on what I'm hearing the caller say is that and it sounds like it's directed at people who may be supporters of the former president so I'm not quite sure what the phenomena is that is being discussed I would just say that you know people throw out terms quite a bit I think that that can be a little dangerous when we start to characterize people in terms of their mental health status,
particularly if we don't have training in that area.
But I'm not quite sure of what that term is or how people are using that term.
Patty Ann at Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.
Good morning, Patty.
Good morning, Tammy.
Thank you so much for taking my call.
Thank you for C-SMAN.
Thank you, Scottie, for being on today.
My question has to do, we have a multi-generational home here.
So my daughter and her husband and the kiddos, grandkids live with us.
We all live together.
So my two granddaughters are now teens, 17 and soon-to-be 15 girls.
I'm very politically active.
They know that I've organized, helped organize the women's march.
I do canvassing and all of that.
That helps me cope.
Something that started happening as they became more aware, because we've always tried to sort of shelter them.
Like, you know, we've never played Trump's speeches on television.
We try to shelter them somewhat, but have conversations so they bring it up.
So during COVID is when things started to get a little scary because their grandfather was home and was playing those daily briefings.
And they saw him as crazy.
And so, and they were getting scared.
And then they started looking around at like our extended family members who were supporters.
And now it's much worse because the 17-year-old and now the 15-year-old, they have more access to social media.
They've become aware of statements having to do with Trump's attacks on women, like the Access Hollywood case.
So the last few days it's become worse.
The last few weeks, I don't know how to help them cope.
They don't know how to look at family members who they are now old enough to understand are actively voting for someone that they have information about that they see as a threat to them.
And I don't know how to help them deal with that because I can't reconcile it myself.
You know, and so now I have a 17 and soon to be 15 year old who just don't know how to cope with knowing that there are people in their lives that would actively vote against their self-interest.
How do I help them reconcile that?
Sure.
So one thing to know is that for our children, particularly younger children, but even older children, how we manage these issues has a big impact on how they manage them.
In fact, the level of stress and distress that we're experiencing often impacts on our children.
So number one, I think you being a role model around these issues is very important.
I think, you know, as I was talking earlier about really trying to separate out the political viewpoints of family members from how you care about those family members is really important.
You know, I think all of us are dealing with this phenomenon that really feels like something we haven't dealt with before, that the political environment is now such that it is impacting on our relationships and on our lives beyond the election.
And that's a new phenomenon.
We don't have a lot of experience with that.
And what I would really encourage is to have the conversation, particularly about the point that you're making, which is help us understand how you think differently, so differently on these issues.
I want to understand that as a way of really bridging that gap and bridging that divide that people may feel because of the political differences in the family.
And Dr. Evans wanted to point out that the new Stress in America survey also did have some bright spots.
And there was a 61% feel hopeful about the change this election will bring.
59% said hopeful the election will lead to a more inclusive society.
77% said they intend to vote in the presidential election.
And 51% said they feel compelled to volunteer or support causes they value.
What can you tell us about the positive aspects of political engagement?
Yeah, well, one of the things we know from psychological research is that one of the things that raises our anxiety is feeling out of control.
And having a greater sense of psychological control actually is a very important strategy in managing our stress.
So what's hopeful about the data that you talked about is that half of the people are saying that they're going to engage or are engaging in the political process.
Well, that goes a long way in giving us that psychological sense of control and therefore helping to reduce the anxiety and stress that we may be feeling.
So there is some hope there.
You know, earlier I talked about the data that over 80% of people feel that even though they may disagree with someone, it's still important for them to hear and understand those viewpoints.
So there is some good news there, and I think we should have hope that because of that, you know, we have a way forward that begins to help reduce some of the impact and stress that we're experiencing from the election process.
Andy in Salisbury, North Carolina.
Good morning, Andy.
Good morning.
I think that we have been tenderized for 20-some years by the, I would say, right, but it's both sides, to where they're stoking their fear and their anger to the point to where everybody, especially the ones, my loved ones around me and the ones I go to church with and everything, are a bunch of old people that are scared and pissed.
And they are acting on this emotion.
And it scares me to evoke emotions instead of giving me facts, I think is the wrong thing to do.
And what I have tried to train myself to do is spend time in the mirror and realize what are they trying to make me feel instead of what the actual issue is.
And that's my biggest thing.
I just think everybody is scared.
And if you're a person on the left, you're scared of Trump.
And if you're a person on the right, you're scared of everybody but Trump.
And everybody else is lying except Trump.
And I can't wrap my head around that, but I can spend my time in the mirror and judge accordingly.
And thank you for my call.
Yeah, well, you know, the caller is saying, you know, you can't say it much better than that, that one of the ways people are manipulated around the election is by trying to stoke their emotions, and particularly anger.
Anger is one of the ways that people use to really get people to take the position that they want them to take.
And so I think being aware of that is really important.
And I thought you said it well in terms of that's the strategy.
And if we can be much more aware of that, we're less likely to succumb to that.
I think the other thing about that that's important is really being careful about the sources that we get our information from.
You know, our survey said that many people, majority of people are very concerned about fake news, about how AI can be used to manipulate information and what is perceived as a source of that information.
And so I think we're going to have to be much more vigilant about getting our news from sources that are reliable.
Certainly they may have different viewpoints, but there is a lot of misinformation out there that misinformation is used again to manipulate feelings.
And we want to minimize the likelihood that that can happen.
Gina in Mississippi.
Good morning, Gina.
Good morning, Dr. Evans.
The last two callers kind of touched on what I wanted to say.
I'd like to explain, I'm a high anxiety level person, and the thing that gets to my anxiety the most is the untruth that is spoken over the airwaves.
And then when you have, I mean, you a political, to get the truth today in politics, you have to watch, you have to want to be a political addict.
You have to watch everything since the beginning.
And I am a political donkey.
And since the beginning, when Trump came down the escalator, I have heard untruth propagandized against him.
And it just gets worse and worse and worse and more and more.
And I don't think the media, maybe they do, but I don't think the media really realizes the effect that it's having on the American population.
Like I had a lady call in the other day.
She was a Democrat, and she was literally crying saying that Trump was going to take her Social Security away from her, which is just a ball-faced lie propagated by the Democrats.
And it's just little things, little things, over and over, how they take one word out of a sentence or a paragraph and turn it into what they want it to mean.
I do believe it is a sin doctor.
I think that the Lord is watching.
And I think that the Democrats set out to destroy Donald Trump almost 10 years ago.
And now they have turned him into something that is as bad as Satan himself.
And I do believe that the Lord is listening and watching.
And I do believe that the Lord protected him when someone tried to kill him.
You know, we'll get a response from Dr. Evans.
Yeah, well, you know, a couple of things that you said that were important that I want to pull out.
One is that information and people's positions can be mischaracterized.
And it happens both sides of the political spectrum.
And so we want to be aware of that and particularly things that poke at our emotions, as the previous caller said.
The other thing that you mentioned is about your faith.
And one of the things that when we're talking about how we manage and cope stress, actually our faith is actually a really important, can be a really important resource and support for us.
And so I would also encourage people who are people of faith, who have a community of faith that can be supportive, that to rely on that community to help sustain you as well.
And Dr. Evans, this survey also found that 77% of adults said the future of our nation was a significant source of stress in their life.
Come Election Day, once the dust has settled, there's a good chance that about 50% of the country will not be happy with the president who has been elected.
How can people continue to manage their political-related stress after the election's over?
It's going to be very important for people to put the election in perspective and the impact of the election in perspective.
One of the things that is driving stress is that the election and its results have been put into existential terms, that if this election doesn't go my way, it's the end of America as we know it.
It's the end of my life as we know it.
It's just these very stark terms.
The reality is that for most of us, even if our person didn't get into the White House, our lives haven't changed that dramatically.
Most of us still have the same jobs that we have.
Most of us still live in the same home that we have.
Most of our lives are pretty much the same.
That doesn't mean the election wasn't consequential and it's not important, but for the most part, life hasn't changed as dramatically as it is painted prior to the election.
So I think it's really important to keep that in mind as we're thinking about this.
And then at the end of the day, we all want the same things.
We want to have life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, you know, as Americans.
And the importance of then engaging in the political process, engaging in civic activities becomes even more important.
What drives our anxiety and stress is this feeling of not being in control, the feelings of uncertainty.
And the more that we can do to actively engage, the more that we can do to be involved in and really trying to address the issues that people are concerned about, the better that we're going to do post-election.
Bill in Northbrook, Illinois.
Good morning, Bill.
Good morning.
Mike, it's more of a statement than a question, but I'd say you're basically dealing with emotions.
50, 60 years ago, we got our information reading a newspaper, but today we're online.
We're constantly bombarded.
And I would say, I would think one message is that each person, regardless of the level of education, should always ask themselves, what do I think?
Not what I'm being told on the television to think or on my computer, but what do I think?