Political Polarization as an Occupational Hazard: Evidence from United Methodist Clergy

As affective political polarization grows in the United States (Iyengar et al. 2019; Nelson 2022), there is evidence for increased health burdens in ideologically mismatched social environments (Fraser et al. 2022). Increased workplace conflict over ideological issues may drive this association. Ideological discordance between clergy and their congregants is common in Mainline Protestant churches (Roso and Chaves, 2023), potentially leading to increased conflict, which could negatively impact the well-being of clergy. Using responses from 648 United Methodist clergy in North Carolina, we examined the association between clergy political affiliations, perceptions of congregant politics, political mismatch, perceived political conflict, and clergy occupational distress. Democrat pastors were more likely to report political mismatch and conflict with their congregants. Both perceptions of mismatch and conflict over political issues were independently associated with increased occupational distress, with conflict being the primary factor.