14 DAY TRIAL // Presidential election outcomes directly influence suicide rates among voters, a new study published in the September issue of Social Science Quarterly finds.
The survey analyzed suicide rates at a state level, from 1981 to 2005 and concluded that within the states where the national election winner was mostly supported, suicide rates decreased.
As surprisingly as it might seem, suicide rates decreased even more in states where the majority of the voters supported the losing candidate, with 4.6 percentages lower for males and 5.3 for females.
In general, scientists always believed that people that commit suicide are less linked with others members of the society.
The study's authors developed interest for this matter after studying the effect of job loss and unemployment on suicide rates, as these two factors are what theoretically causes people to fell less connected to the society.
This is the first article to focus on a possible link between candidate and state-specific outcomes and suicide rates, as prior study on this topic got to the same result, but focused on a different matter – whether the election process itself influenced suicide rates.
Previous work had questioned whether events that bring people together like elections, war, or religious holidays have an influence on suicide rates, the difference being that the analysis had not considered the way that the outcomes of these events could also have an influence on suicide risk.
Richard A. Dunn, PhD, lead author of the study, believes that the power of social cohesion is the strongest in these cases.
He says that “sure, supporting the loser stinks, but if everyone around you supported the loser, it isn't as bad because you feel connected to those around you,” Science Daily reports.
“In other words, it is more comforting to be a Democrat in Massachusetts or Rhode Island when George W. Bush was re-elected than to be the lonely Democrat in Idaho or Oklahoma.”
This new study is very important for public health researchers that analyze the reasons of suicide risks but also for the sociologists that study the role of social cohesion and for the experts is political science that analyze the rhetoric of political speeches and campaigns.