Stress research: voting campaigns can trigger stress among minorities
Voting campaign can cause stress among minorities
Keystone-SDA
A referendum campaign, such as the one on 'marriage for all,' can trigger stress in those affected and their allies, according to researchers at the University of Zurich. Their study showed that participants released more stress hormones during the referendum campaign.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Abstimmungskampf kann bei Minderheiten Stress auslösen
Original
The researchers investigated how the 2021 “marriage for all” campaign affected the stress levels of queer people and their sympathisers by using hair samples. They surveyed several hundred people about their stress levels before, during and after the campaign and collected hair samples to measure stress hormone levels.
Increased cortisol and cortisone levels
The results revealed that respondents released significantly more cortisol and cortisone during the campaign. This increase was observed not only in the queer participants but also in their friends and family. The researchers concluded that political campaigns against the rights of LGBTIQ people can heighten feelings of discrimination, rejection and alienation from mainstream society among those affected.
Interestingly, the self-perceived stress levels of the surveyed individuals did not increase during the campaign. The researchers suspect that participants might have downplayed their perception of stress during the interviews. However, stress markers in hair samples decreased when respondents perceived supportive words from the ‘yes’ campaign. This finding underscores the importance of fair treatment and supportive discourse for better health outcomes among minorities, according to the research team.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Demographics
How retiring baby boomers could crash Swiss property market
This content was published on
“Wait and see" seems to be the position adopted by large Swiss companies in the face of US President Donald Trump's trade policy.
Eurostar plans direct link between London and Geneva
This content was published on
The Eurostar railway company wants to offer a direct connection between Switzerland and Great Britain for the first time in the coming years.
Lucy Liu to receive career award at Locarno Film Festival
This content was published on
The Locarno78 Career Achievement Award goes to American actress Lucy Liu. The award will be presented to her on Thursday 14 August on the Piazza Grande.
Swiss foreign minister travels to Israel and Palestinian territories
This content was published on
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis is travelling to the Middle East on Tuesday and Wednesday for official visits to the Palestinian and Israeli authorities.
This content was published on
This year's Zurich city lake crossing is planned for 2 July. Should the weather not play ball or the water be too cold, two alternative dates are planned.
June 14 women’s strike: no equality without pay rises for women
This content was published on
Although pay inequality persists, large companies are ignoring the basic provisions of the Equality Act, Swiss trade union Unia criticised on Tuesday.
Israeli army has committed crimes against humanity, say UN investigators
This content was published on
The Israeli army has committed crimes against humanity of extermination by targeting civilian refugees in schools and religious sites, say UN investigators.
Swiss finance directors against abolishing ‘marriage penalty’
This content was published on
A large majority of cantonal finance directors reject both the popular initiative in favour of individual taxation and the counter-proposal. They favour joint taxation of spouses.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.