Kaye Usry, instructor in political science and policy studies, drew from her research into how personal trauma may impact political and civic involvement.
A recent article in Mashable about how people who have faced their own trauma react when being bombarded with “horrible news” features the insights from Kaye Usry, instructor in political science and policy studies.
The article by Rebecca Ruiz titled “Why it’s so hard to follow horrible news even when everyone tells you to pay attention” takes a look at the calls to action that follow news such as that surrounding the recent separation of migrant children from their parents along the U.S. border.
“Whatever the case, it makes sense to choose exactly how often you’ll bear witness; there’s only so much agony a person can tolerate before becoming numb or ambivalent,” Ruiz writes. “That’s exponentially true if you’ve also experienced personal trauma and find following the latest developments simply too painful.”
Ruiz spoke with Usry about her own research that delved into the connection between personal trauma and its impact on political and civic engagement. Usry told Ruiz that her research had found a “small but noticeable” association between experiences like military combat, childhood maltreatment and intimate partner violence, and lower levels of political trust and engagement.
“I do think it’s important that people are aware of what’s going on,” she says. But [saying that] people who’ve experienced trauma, because they experienced trauma, they should care about it and be taking action — that would be a problem.”
Read the full article here.