Economic anxiety is the state of concern about the future of one's economic prospects. Economic anxiety can increase due to loss of household income or decreased purchasing power, causing affected individuals to self-report having more issues with societal structure and a lower quality of life. Events in the life of an individual such as unemployment, divorce, or a serious illness can also trigger decreased income, and by result, economic anxiety. Research has shown that high levels of economic insecurity exist among low-income households, and that economic anxiety has a positive correlation with growing economic inequality in the United States.
There are a myriad of adverse physical and social conditions that research correlates with individuals who feel economic anxiety. Higher levels of economic anxiety have been shown to be positively correlated with a fear of crime. When faced with economic anxiety, individuals are more likely to smoke cigarettes as a "self-medicating" coping mechanism. Studies have shown even a 1 percent increase in the chances of becoming unemployed make an individual 2.4 percent more likely to start or continue smoking. Researchers have also found that economic anxiety causes people to gain weight, and that economic anxiety self-reinforces obesity. In one study, a.01 percent increase in chances of becoming unemployed caused average weight gain over a 12-year period to increase by about 0.6 pounds. Each 50% decrease in annual income caused average weight gain for that 12-year period to increase by an extra 5 pounds. Studies have also found that economic insecurity causes physical pain and reduces pain tolerance levels. When individuals lose their jobs, contemplate unemployment levels in their home state or neighborhood, or even when they contemplate past or future economic insecurity, pain levels rise. This suggests that just the prospect, or idea, of economic loss can also be harmful to health.
Measuring economic anxiety
To measure economic anxiety, surveys measure not only financial anxiety but also individuals' feelings surrounding the nation's economy. The Marketplace-Edison Research Poll surveys the economic anxiety of Americans regularly. How an individual answers the questions in the Marketplace-Edison Research Poll determines their , which is a number ranging from 1-100 designed to represent a person's stress related to the economy. The research poll and Index center on 12 questions regarding job security, savings and expenses, and general financial anxiety. The higher a person scores on the Economic Anxiety Index, the more concerned they are said to be about the state of their personal finances and the national economy. Surveys of Americans using the Economic Anxiety Index over time have shown there are strong divisions in economic anxiety between pay grades. Hourly workers have far more economic anxiety than salaried workers, and renters tend to be more stressed financially than those with home mortgages.
Examples of economic anxiety in recent years
The role of economic anxiety among working-class whites was a hot topic following Trump's presidential election in 2016. According to the News on the Web database, use of the term “economic anxiety” peaked on American news platforms in November 2016. Economic anxiety has been widely cited as a major reason for Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Other commentators, however, argued that economic anxiety was less of an important factor in predicting support for Trump than "cultural anxiety," or the feeling that one is a stranger in America and that illegal immigrants should be deported. The term has also been used sarcastically in response to racist statements and actions by Trump's supporters, to mock the attempts by certain political commentators to argue that support for Trump is due to concern about their economic prospects, not to racist attitudes. Some fear now that economic anxiety spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic will cause a long-term economic downturn worldwide. In May of 2020, the Marketplace-Edison Research Poll found that 44% of Americans were concerned about whether they could afford groceries, and that economic anxiety had increased in all demographics since 2019, save those who made less than $25,000 per year in 2020 and the previous year.
