Derived from the verb “to wake,” this term originally referred to the idea of waking up to racial discrimination. Now the word “wokeness” encompasses a much broader notion, since it evokes being alert to all societal struggles against discrimination.
Although overused and even exploited by certain politicians, it originally had a positive connotation. But “wokeness” can also be a source of psychological malaise, as suggested by a recent study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology.
Conducted by Oskari Lahtinen, a researcher at the University of Turku, Finland, this research explored the links between support for causes considered “woke” and effects on mental health.
Carried out in two separate parts, the study first involved a sample of 848 participants (students and staff at the University of Turku), then a panel of 5,030 people aged between 15 and 84 (recruited in Finland).
“The two-part study had 5,878 participants representing all age groups, educational backgrounds, and geographical areas of Finland,” says Oskari Lahtinen in a blog post.
Participants were invited to answer questions and give their opinions on concrete cases of social injustice, such as racial discrimination or sexist and transphobic remarks.
The exercise consisted in assessing the extent to which certain statements did or did not constitute social injustice, each time referring to a graduated scale.
For example: “A white person cannot understand how a black person feels equally well as another black person” or “trans women who compete with women in sports are not helping women’s rights.”
Analysis of responses from both surveys showed a link between higher levels of anxiety and depression and higher levels of sensitivity to social justice.
The study notes that participants who reported the highest levels of anxiety, depression and lack of psychological well-being were also those who most often voted on the political left.
“As the study was cross-sectional, I make no determination about causality in either direction, or whether a third variable causes the association between political views and mental health,” the study author says.
The results also show that this sensitivity is twice as high in women as in men: “Overall, men rejected every critical social justice item on the scale, whereas women expressed support for half and rejected half,” the study points out.