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More and more, Americans find themselves losing faith in the country's democracy. Regardless of political affiliation, it is no secret that the current political climate in the United States has become an object of disdain. Vast discontent with unstable leadership, noticeable underperformance on economic promises, and volatile global relations has fostered mass disillusionment among voters. Joshua Byers, a 26-year-old American, voted in the 2024 presidential election. He was convinced his voice would contribute to “lower prices and improve the lives of the working class” (Merica & Zakrzewski, 2026). Byers was interviewed recently, two years post-election, in a focus group of young voters outside Charlotte. His response: “‘I feel betrayed,’” (Merica & Zakrzewski, 2026). This focus group revealed confusion regarding America’s current infatuation with international conflict and had many citizens “questioning why they voted in the first place” (Merica & Zakrzewski, 2026). Young Americans, who cast their vote just two years ago, are feeling disparaged by the political direction of the country. Exploited with promises of improvement, many citizens are left feeling hopeless and skeptical of their place in America’s democratic process.

“Learned helplessness” was a term coined in the late 1960s by J. Bruce Overmier, Martin Seligman, and Steven Maier. This behavioral phenomenon was tested via Pavlovian conditioning techniques by first administering inescapable shocks to a group of dogs. Eventually, these conditioned dogs and an unconditioned control group were placed in “a shuttle box, a two-sided chamber in which a dog jumps from one side to the other side to turn off or escape the shock” (Lennerlöf, 1988). Shocks can be entirely avoided if the jump to the other side occurs before the stimulation. While Overmier et al. quickly discovered the control group could actively avoid the adverse shock, the dogs who had initially been conditioned to an unavoidable shock would rather lie down and “accept the shock passively” (Lennerlöf, 1988). This conditioned group had developed uncertainty in their sense of control and refused to make any effort to avoid the adverse stimuli. This finding is evident in the political behavior intensifying in America.

“Learned helplessness” occurs when the feeling of control is removed. This pattern is programmed in one’s brain that no action can prohibit the inevitable adverse stimuli. This lack of control permeates into the ability to learn new, preventative behaviors, like jumping to the other side of the shuttle box. This fear and defeat can become trans-situational, where one instance of helplessness can infiltrate unrelated situations. Unforeseen, large-scale political decisions made by the American government have instilled such a trans-situational lack of personal control. In his interview, Joshua Byers adds, “I don’t really want to vote anymore. I’m really starting to think it just won’t matter. … I don’t want to feel responsible for taking a vote and feeling misled, or misjudged, or making a wrong move” (Merica & Zakrzewski, 2026). Americans have begun to welcome defeat as a result of recurring political shortcomings.

It is now understood that because of the regular use of technology to access social media, “we have round-the-clock access to the latest news,” and “having 24/7 access to current events means there’s potentially no limit to how much we consume” (Mental Health Foundation, n.d.). This access is novel to society as news was once limited to word of mouth, newspapers, magazines, radio transmissions, and eventually, television. Continuous coverage fueled by social media has exposed many Americans to more comprehensive and widespread media than ever before. This, in turn, amplifies outside stressors to trigger personal learned helplessness. It doesn't help that “the rapid spread of information blurs the line between truth and falsehood,” which works to create “a political information environment highly susceptible to misinformation” (Bano et al., 2025). The figure attached shows the “number of posts and reposts that were determined to contain misinformation by sentiment classification” (Bano et al., 2025).�� While it is recorded that the amount of misinformation has decreased from 2020, it is still notable that there is no recording of positive misinformation. This notable documentation of negative information concerning America's government only augments the volume of stressors and amplifies the level of disillusionment. The amalgamation of political discontent, mass media, and misinformation is stripping the agency from American democracy and has begun to operate as a human version of Pavlovian conditioning. One by one, irrespective of party, Americans are experiencing inescapable shock. And similarly, Americans have begun to adopt the defeatist mindset of the conditioned dogs.

Figure 1

Citizens cannot merely prevent ongoing international war, nor can they simply correct America's economy in one day. However, citizens must remain diligent with their personal actions. Citizens’ sense of control is being diluted, twisted into trans-situational cynicism of one’s own locus of control. It is understood that “when an individual cannot control an aversive outcome, but believes that other relevant people can, the individual has to take the blame: the fault is attributed to internal factors” (Lennerlöf, 1988). Americans begin to lose their confidence in their ability to influence their outcomes, and citizens become the dog that just lies down.

However, America as a society is not helpless dogs in a shuttle box. It is true that “human beings who have experienced an uncontrollable situation tend afterwards to make fewer attempts when facing other problems” (Lennerlöf, 1988). Learned helplessness has begun silencing the people and has “fostered a political climate in which populist leaders can capitalize on public disillusionment,” which has allowed these leaders and parties to “promote narratives that dismiss facts, exacerbate polarization, and hinder the implementation of comprehensive policies” (Bano et al., 2025). These large-scale issues, heightened and often distorted by mass media, should not be allowed to attack one's personal locus of control, steal one's optimism, or convince Americans that what is done as democratic citizens does not matter. It has been found that “to overcome learned helplessness, the individual must learn to change the way that they think, moving from feelings of helplessness to feelings of control” (Winterflood & Climie, 2020). Democracy is fueled by resilience, opinion, and differences. American citizens can cast a vote; they are free to protest, and their voices do matter. In a volatile political climate with extensive, brazen coverage, Americans must stand strong and remember that they do maintain control over their actions. A democracy can only function if Americans reframe their perception to combat disillusionment and exercise agency by being the dog that jumps to the other side.

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References

Bano, S., Hill, D. J., & Ahmad, N. (2025). Misinformation and Democratic Dissatisfaction: Trump’s Electoral Narratives in the 2020 and 2024 US Elections. Contributions to Political Science, 201–229. ��

Curato, N., & Niemeyer, S. (2013). Reaching Out to Overcome Political Apathy: Building Participatory Capacity through Deliberative Engagement. Politics & Policy, 41(3), 355–383. ��

Lennerlöf, L. (1988). Learned Helplessness at Work. International Journal of Health Services, 18(2), 207–222. ��

Mental Health Foundation. (2025). Overwhelm: when global events and relentless bad news become too much. Mental Health Foundation; MHF. ��

Merica, D., & Zakrzewski, C. (2026, March 16). Trump sold young voters on his vision. Many are having buyer’s remorse. The Washington Post. ��

Winterflood, H., & Climie, E. A. (2020). Learned Helplessness. The Wiley Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 269–274. ��