“Biden Seeks to Shake Us Out of Learned Helplessness Against Trump,” read the headline of a January New York Times op-ed, arguing that “Trump’s exhausting provocations” were wearing down voters who see opposing the former president’s reelection as a “doomed plan.”
Six months later, the mood was slightly more optimistic. Joe Biden had dropped out of the presidential race, Kamala Harris had assumed the Democratic nomination, and “the national Democratic Party appears to have shaken off years of learned helplessness,” a July opinion piece in the Charlotte Observer said.
Feelings of political powerlessness are not new: people who are on the “losing side of politics” – meaning they perceive their political opponents as having power – can feel a “loss of control”, says Dr Christina Farhart, an associate professor of political science at Carleton University.
What’s different now, according to Farhart, is that people across the political spectrum feel powerless. No “side” feels like they’re winning. Farhart added that part of this is due to the chaotic historical events of the past few years, including the pandemic, the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, and the January 6 riots.
Harris’ nomination has piqued voter interest in recent months, but the national mood has been gloomy. A survey published by Fortune magazine in March this year found that nearly half of Americans feel hopeless about the country’s future. A 2022 NPR/Ipsos poll found that 64% of Americans believe that U.S. democracy is “in crisis and in danger of collapse.” Gallup polls over the past two years also found that public trust in U.S. institutions is at an all-time low.
What does so-called learned helplessness actually mean, and what does it look like in a political situation, like a contentious presidential election?
What is Learned Helplessness?
In the 1960s, when laws regarding animal testing were still lax, psychologist Martin Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania came up with the theory of “learned helplessness.”
The scientists gave dogs electric shocks and found that dogs who were able to stop the shock by pressing their nose against a panel were more likely to try to escape the shock afterwards, while dogs who couldn’t stop the shock (nothing happened when they pressed the panel) were less likely to try to escape the shock.
The researchers concluded that repeated exposure to aversive stimuli over which one has no control makes people feel powerless to make any change and eventually they stop trying to escape the painful situation altogether.
Learned helplessness quickly became a popular psychological concept, commonly used to explain behaviors related to depression and why victims of abuse and trauma are unable to leave their abusers even when they have the opportunity.
But the term has also been used to describe the behavior of a broader demographic: the American electorate.
How does learned helplessness affect people politically?
A public feeling of powerlessness has serious consequences not just for individuals who feel more depressed, but for society as a whole.
Dr. Sandra Bloom, an associate professor of health management and policy at Drexel University and co-founder of the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice, said people who feel powerless may be less likely to participate in the political process, including voting and getting involved in their communities.
Farhart’s research shows that feelings of powerlessness make people more susceptible to misinformation and conspiracy theories. “Humans want to understand the world around them,” she says. When people feel out of control, they seek to understand why. Participating in a conspiracy theory can be a coping mechanism to make sense of uncertainty.
According to a 2023 YouGov poll, some of Americans’ favorite conspiracy theories are about control, the electoral process, and those in power. For example, 41% of respondents believe that “there is a single group that secretly controls events and rules the world together,” regardless of who is in power, 31% believe that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and 29% believe that voting machines were programmed to change votes in the 2020 election.
But it’s a vicious cycle: “Exposure to misinformation exacerbates the feeling of lack of control, and learned helplessness worsens over time,” Farhart says.
People deal with these feelings in different ways. Some respond by withdrawing from certain parts of the political process, like voting. This is more common in lower-income communities and communities that have been historically or systemically marginalized by traditional institutions, Farhart said.
“That doesn’t mean they’re completely apolitical,” she clarifies, explaining that people from these communities may be more likely to find ways to express their political views outside of the formal political system, through protests and rallies.
Are there ways to combat learned helplessness?
At an individual level, learned helplessness can be overcome by changing how we perceive events. “A sense of inescapability was not, in itself, sufficient to produce anything more than momentary helplessness,” Seligman explained in a 2017 paper reflecting on the impact of the theory he helped develop 50 years ago.
How long and how severely people feel helpless depends on the inescapable story they tell themselves. People who attributed their helplessness to “permanent causes” — that is, problems that couldn’t always be solved — showed longer-lasting feelings of helplessness, while people who attributed their helplessness to temporary causes overcame it more quickly.
Seligman says people can work on this restructuring with the help of tools such as therapy, specifically cognitive behavioral therapy, which gives individuals the tools to “reduce destructive negative thoughts and feelings.”
But experts stressed that one of the most effective ways to overcome feelings of powerlessness is for people to build community.
“We live in a very individualistic society,” says Andrea Chatmon, a community coordinator for the group Empower DC in Washington, D.C. She says individuals often feel like they have to solve their problems alone. But when they see that others in their community are facing the same issues, she says, “it gives them the motivation to take action.”
“It really helps people to know that their opinion matters when they’re in a group and they’re part of something, especially if they’re part of a group that’s typically been excluded,” Chatmon added.
Working together as a group, whether that be attending protests, participating in community organizing or voting promotion efforts, “is our only hope,” Bloom said.
“We have to get together, have fun, enjoy each other’s company and try to get things done,” she says.