Vicious cycles of stress could be paralyzing us from fighting climate change and pandemics
SalonFor years, mass shootings have dominated headlines in the United States. Published in Frontiers in Science, a group of researchers suggest chronic inflammation caused by stress is affecting our collective thinking and behavior, and it’s keeping society in a “self-sustaining cycle of societal dysfunction and environmental degradation” which is keeping us from taking action on issues like climate change and social unrest. “Stress-impaired judgment could explain the chaotic and counter-intuitive responses of large parts of the global population to stressful events such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic,” Vodovotz said. “People are constantly bombarded with high levels of distressing information, be it the news, negative online comments, or a feeling of inadequacy when viewing social media feeds,” Vodovotz said. “We hypothesize that this new dimension of human experience, from which it is difficult to escape, is driving stress, chronic inflammation and cognitive impairment across global societies.” When people think about stress responses, fight or flight usually comes to mind.
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