In a recent survey of U.S. users of the Hint App, 54% said they believe they would emotionally collapse during a major societal disruption, including war, climate disasters, or economic breakdown.
In other words, many people feel emotionally unprepared for major crises, highlighting how financial and digital stressors add to overall anxiety levels.
This tallies with other findings which point how the intersection of global crises and rising cost of living creates a so termed “polycrisis”. This is phenomenon that profoundly impacts human social and emotional psychology, often resulting in increased mental distress, sleep problems, and a decline in overall well-being.
The data was drawn from 1,482 U.S.-based users. These users, it is important to point out, were those who wished to use the specific app – an app for those seeking a degree of precognition (a direct knowing) or prescience (foresight/foreknowledge) – could be somewhat self-selecting. Hence, the data may be somewhat biased towards those who are already troubled by future events. Nonetheless, this will be a relatively large demographic, and the findings should not be ignored simply as a result of the population sample.
The findings show several areas of societal interest. In terms of demographics, the level of unpreparedness rises with the younger generation. Here 63% of those aged 18 to 29 reported being psychologically unready for prolonged instability (compared with 47% of those aged 40 and older).
There are also gender differences to account for, with 58% of women saying they would struggle to remain emotionally stable during a major crisis (compared with 45% of male respondents).
What stands out from the data is not acute fear, but a broader sense of anticipatory strain, a feeling of bracing for instability before it occurs. The rate of occurrence also appears to be increasing, with 57% of people saying their anxiety has intensified over the past two years due to geopolitical conflict and extreme weather. Another factor is economics, where 53% link their emotional strain directly to financial uncertainty.
The data additionally suggests a widening gap between constant exposure to crisis and confidence in coping with it, particularly among younger adults. The world is a more unstable place and increasing so given President Trump initiating war with Iran. However, the effect of this on the population sampled is far from normalisation leading to increased resilience. Instead, many respondents described a gradual erosion of their psychological confidence. In other words, familiarity with crisis does not appear to reduce its emotional impact.
In terms of trends, the app’s platform analysis infers that engagement with content related to stress pattern recognition has increased by 41% over the past year, suggesting that users are attempting to build interpretive frameworks rather than forecast outcomes.
For policy makers, the findings could suggest that preparedness can no longer be understood solely in logistical or economic terms. The population may need more careful nurturing the more frequently crises become.
