After President Donald Trump was elected in 2024, Democratic supporters reported decrease in well-being, optimism, personal control, and institutional trust, while also experiencing higher cynicism. In contrast, Republican supporters experienced changes in the opposite direction.
Trump’s 2024 victory flipped the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives
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I would very much like to see this contrasted with current sentiments. Not that I think it would provide insight, more so for my own vindication.
Otherwise, this kind of feels like nothing. Like, in a tribal system of course you’re going to be happy when your side “wins.”
Ive definitely noticed this with myself and many people that I work with. It doesn’t seem to seem to abate because every day has some new craziness.
The flip is interesting as it indicates how much messaging was being pumped out about how hopeless Bidens America was.
This is a pretty well studied phenomenon. Despite the economy improving drastically under Biden, Republicans voters thought things got worse and worse. It’s particularly stark when you consider the baseline was lockdowns and high inflation.
Humans are forward-looking and biased. The former is why we like Fridays (a workday) more than Sundays (a holiday). The latter is why a republican would think things are better the day their leader has been elected, whereas democrats would be concerned—independent of the policies like tariffs or bellicose rhetoric toward allies that make them worse off per se.
so this is just an indication of how deeply divided the country is. if very flip of the government is bringing despair to the other side, isn’t there a tipping point where this desperation turns into violence?
What? Partisan people are partisan.
Someone quickly get the white house on the line, they’ll be shocked at this discovery…
Oh they had no idea how much worse it was going to be, did they
You know what they say… ignorance is bliss!
Tribalism is a thing. So would make sense for people to be happy when their side is “winning”. I’d be curious to see what the data shows when it also measures levels of understanding of current/past events.
A year and three months into the presidency and left leaning people are vindicated in their feelings. I would even venture to say that left leaning people weren’t that optimistic when Biden was elected. Glad trump lost, sure. But excited for Biden? Absolutely not.
It’s crazy how after Democrats “stole” the 2020 election, they just, you know, didn’t bother to steal the next one and then voluntarily stepped down.
One wonders if the feelings were reversed when Biden won in 2020…
Other studies have shown this phenomenon happens both ways, but the swings happen way more drastically with Republicans and is getting worse. Everyone has their reasons why thats the case (including me), but would love to see some data or studies on the why
I assume based on the content they just mean democratic vs republican voters, but when you say “Trump” and then say “Democratic/Republican supporters” it sounds like you mean supporters *of Trump.* And the fact that I might actually be wrong, and that could be what they’re trying to say, only underscores that point.
A lot of scientists need to pass their work off to someone who knows how to write clearly.
Admittedly, 2024 was just a disappointing election cycle in general if you were a democrat. You just see your own party keep shooting themselves in the foot while the republican candidate despite obviously being an absolutely terrible person kept winning. Not to mention all of the outside factors like Ukraine and AI taking peoples jobs.
So democrats were upset and republicans were happy. Wow…. What a breakthrough discovery.
Repub supporters I know do not talk about him as much.
Don’t we get a study like this every election flip and it is always the same depending on which party is in power?
Did these observations conflict with expectations? If so: how?
Surprised it ever went away after 2016. Horrified me the first time, 2nd time I felt more sad but more numb about it. I already accepted by then that l shared a country with people who have “morals” I’ll never comprehend
Republicans felt better BECAUSE Democrats felt worse.
With someone like trump being the president it tells me that hard work and honesty don’t pay off. So why should I try? The most successful path forward is to learn how to scam. How to lie how to take advantage and get as mic as I can without helping society. Because that’s what pays off these days. The lying cheater wins. Doing the right thing and being a decent person is for suckers. That’s a dangerous thing.
I’ll never understand how so many Americans are bereft in basic human decency that they’re willing to elect, indeed are almost fanatical about, a man who is perhaps the most transparently morally bankrupt human beings to ever be elected office.
They care about “Winning” not making the country better for everyone.
My mom uses social programs, is dirt poor, needs financial help from people for her medical bills, and is Hispanic. She’s all about Trump and thinks he is doing a great job. She also doesn’t like gay/trans people, prefers traditional values, and doesn’t like black people. So I guess it caters to her hate and likes that he is “Christian”
Anecdotally- I personally have realized people don’t think as deeply as I do in the sense that long term consequences and personal responsibility are not accounted for in decisions.
It’s utterly depressing.
so uh, does psychology factor reality into its “everyone has depression” now when it does these studies or nah. the “people in the town next to the volcano had higher rates of depression and hopelessness” studies are a little wierd out of context of the volcano exploding.
It certainly makes me understand the emotions conservatives felt. The difference between us is observing actual convicted crimes, actual acts of violence, actual reading court transcripts and the constitution vs them believing the likes of Alex Jones, Steven Bannon and Donald Trump; Convicted felons. Hopefully they will repent, hopefully they will read the court transcripts and summaries.
i know a lot of people devastating when he won yet the outcome of the election had no tangible impact on their livelihood
Wow thank you so much, science