The work-related consequences of employees’ media-based political information consumption: A nine-wave weekly study during the 2024 U.S. presidential primary season

To cope with political stress, many people spend considerable time seeking political information. Indeed, whether on social media sites (e.g., Facebook) or through traditional outlets like television, people consume political information as a means of staying updated about political issues that have the potential to affect them and their communities. Considering the pervasive effects of politics, might the valence and frequency of political information consumed in the nonwork domain have implications for their behavior at work? The purpose of the present research was to examine the influence of consuming media-based negative and positive political information outside of work on employee behavior (i.e., political correctness, helping behavior) and engagement at work. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we propose that during weeks when employees consume more negative and positive political information outside of work than their usual, they experience increased anxiety and hope, respectively. We further posit that these cognitive–affective states shape work-related outcomes, promoting resource-preserving behaviors (e.g., reduced work engagement, heightened political correctness) and resource-investing behaviors (e.g., increased helping and engagement). To test these hypotheses, we used a nine-wave weekly sample of U.S. workers collected during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Primaries (i.e., from January 19 th through March 15 th ; N Weeks = 2,772, N Employees = 308). Multilevel path analyses of these data largely supported our hypotheses.