Election loneliness is real, but 1 program is encouraging to vote for kindness and connection

One U.S. city is encouraging people to look beyond political views and build personal connections as the country heads into Election Day.

The program in Toledo, Ohio, known as “Neighbor to Neighbor,” was co-founded by Gayle Catinella, the reverend of St. Michael’s in the Hills, an Episcopal church in Ottawa Hills, six miles west of Toledo.

Catinella said she and her congregant, Carol Nichols, were noticing how political rhetoric was disrupting their community.

“Before, you could hold different political views and still be friends,” Catinella told ABC News. “But that’s almost impossible to do now.”

Political differences seem to be making a contribution to a larger problem, something the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has referred to as a “loneliness epidemic” with nearly half of Americans reporting feeling some level of loneliness.

Catinella described the “Neighbor to Neighbor” effort as a “peace initiative” for the 2024 election season. Group members distributed more than 2,300 “Love Your Neighbor” yard signs featuring a simple pink heart to represent the word “love.”

The response has been overwhelmingly positive, she said.

“We see them in yards with Trump signs. We see them in yards with Harris signs. That’s how it should be,” Catinella said.

Dr. Andrew Newberg, the research director at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health in Philadelphia, who has studied how partisanship affects the brain, says election-related stress can cause people to narrow their social networks.

“Emotional stress triggers the limbic system, heightening negative emotions and reinforcing beliefs,” he told ABC News. “When something challenges someone’s strongly held beliefs, it causes stress hormones, like cortisol, to spike, weakening neural connections and impairing the brain’s adaptability.”

The more isolated someone feels, the harder it is for them to connect with others and engage despite disagreements, Newberg said. Over time, this isolation reinforces psychological negativity, making people feel increasingly disconnected from their communities.

Grassroots efforts like “Neighbor to Neighbor” aim to combat these divisions. So far, the initiative has raised more than $50,000 with support from 35 local sponsors. Other communities across the country have reached out, eager to replicate the program.

Some people, like Laura Budd, a Democratic state representative in North Carolina, are trying to address political estrangement on a personal level.

Budd said she has also noticed the emotional cracks in her community growing wider as election season ramps up. In her deeply divided swing state, Budd often finds herself on the receiving end of dismissive remarks.

“Sometimes, people will cut me off in a discussion not only because I’m not ‘red’ enough, but sometimes because I’m not ‘blue’ enough,” she told ABC News.

For Budd, polarization isn’t just about clashing opinions in the statehouse; it’s about how divisive politics are causing people to retreat from relationships.

In a state that flipped Republican by only 1% in the 2020 presidential election, tensions run high, and she said she’s witnessed trivial differences of opinion break up friendships.

Budd said she is determined to bridge ideological gaps by consciously working at maintaining friendships with colleagues and neighbors who don’t share her every political belief.

“There’s a family down the street that votes Republican, but they put my campaign sign on their lawn,” she said. “We might not vote the same way, but we can still have respect and admiration for one another.”

Budd said she tries to listen respectfully, even when she doesn’t hold the same views as another person. Although she’s a politician herself, she said she avoids the subject as much as possible.

“There’s plenty of good stuff to talk about — why lead with that?” Budd said.

But political rifts won’t vanish after the election, especially if the results are strongly contested, Newberg, from the Marcus Institute, cautioned. He noted that lack of clarity often intensifies stress, solidifying opposing views.

“The stronger the emotional reaction, the more deeply the beliefs are embedded in our brains,” he said. “This could worsen feelings of loneliness and isolation in the aftermath.”

His best advice for navigating this highly charged political moment is to keep an open mind to help turn the temperature down on political differences.

“The most important things that people can do are to engage in rituals and practices that foster a sense of belonging and open themselves up to other ideas,” he said.

Nichols, from Neighbor to Neighbor, suggested finding ways to promote unity wherever possible.

“We’re planning a community meal with a theme of gratitude right after the election,” she said. “No matter which way the election goes, we have a lot to be grateful for.”

“It’s not about transforming the world. It’s about transforming ourselves,” Catinella added.

This is part of a yearlong reporting initiative by ABC News Mental State: The Loneliness Epidemic.