WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
A study found that exposure to negative stories makes people think that the world is more dangerous than it really is, while seeing stories of others’ kindness helps us maintain the belief that the world isn’t that bad. In the study, the group that was strictly shown unsettling news reported increases in negative emotions and decreases in positive feelings. Meanwhile, participants who were also shown stories of kindness reported feeling less negative emotions, coupled with increases of positive emotion. That group reported a more optimistic view of the world.
Kathryn Buchanan was driving to work when she heard horrific news on the radio: Twenty-two people were killed in a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Tears immediately streamed down her face.
“That was really heartbreaking,” recalled Buchanan, a psychology professor at the University of Essex.
Amid the deluge of devastating headlines about the event in May 2017, though, Buchanan noticed that “there was some coverage around all of the kindness that followed in the aftermath.” It gave her some sense of relief.
For instance, people offered shelter, food and rides to total strangers and countless messages of support poured in from around the world on social media. Locals lined the streets to donate blood after the deadly attack. Cabdrivers handed out food and offered free rides.
“I became very emotional and grateful that there was still goodness out there against the backdrop of horror,” Buchanan said, explaining that reading stories of kindness instilled a sense of hope in her that had been lost after hearing about the attack.
She began to contemplate whether being exposed to heartwarming content could counteract the known negative impacts of consuming harrowing news stories. Common symptoms include heightened stress, hopelessness, anger, anxiety and depression.
“The researcher in me wanted to know if this is a me thing, or could this really be doing other people out there some good?” Buchanan recalled wondering.
So she started a years-long study in 2017, which was published on May 17 in PLOS One, a peer-reviewed journal. It found that being exposed to news that contains an element of kindness can ease the effects of reading distressing news stories.
“The negative exposure we have in the media makes us think that the world is more dangerous than it really is,” Buchanan said. “Seeing others’ kindness helps us maintain this belief that the world isn’t that bad.”
To arrive at that conclusion, Buchanan and her colleague, Gillian Sandstrom, split 1,800 participants into several groups - each of which were shown news clips or articles about a recent U.K.-based terrorist attack or a similar catastrophic event. Some of the groups were solely exposed to upsetting news, while others were subsequently shown a story about a heroic act or a more lighthearted subject.
The group that was strictly shown unsettling news reported increases in negative emotions and decreases in positive feelings. That group also indicated feeling more pessimism about humanity and society. Meanwhile, participants who were also shown stories of kindness reported feeling less negative emotions, coupled with increases of positive emotion. That group reported a more optimistic view of the world.
Participants used two scales from 1 (meaning very slightly or not at all) to 5 (meaning extremely) to assess the level of negativity and positivity they felt before being exposed to the content, as well as after.
Repeatedly throughout their research, Buchanan and Sandstrom saw that uplifting news can provide an emotional buffer against distressing news. They also found that “there’s something special about kindness in particular,” Buchanan said, noting that while amusing stories (such as swearing parrots or classic jokes) diminished the effects of upsetting news, stories about acts of kindness were even more powerful.
“Following news stories that feature others’ kindness has a real set of emotional and cognitive benefits for people,” Buchanan said. “It serves as a kind of reset button that allows us to have this faith in humanity.”
While Buchanan believes it is important to stay informed about current events, including distressing ones, she said a balance in coverage would mitigate “mean world syndrome,” which is when - after long-term exposure to upsetting news - people begin to see the world as a darker place than it is in reality.
“When you think the world is a really dangerous place, you kind of want to withdraw from it rather than contribute to the world that is so troubled,” Buchanan said.
Conversely, being exposed to positive news can spur elevation, substituting some feelings of cynicism and hopelessness with optimism and even action. In essence, it encourages people to feel better - and sometimes do better.
The solution is not to avoid negative news, Buchanan said, because “actually ignoring news all together is alienating and can leave you feeling disconnected from the world you’re living in.”
Buchanan said she gets why stories of disaster, war and malfeasance dominate the news. There is a lot of sadness and destruction in the world, and people should not look away from that. We should have compassion for the suffering of others. Additionally, humans are hardwired to watch out for threats, which “makes us a captive audience to negative news,” she said.
But, she added, her research points to the importance of also knowing about some of the good that happens.
Other studies have yielded similar results. Denise Baden is a professor at the University of Southampton, also in England. Her research project, published in 2019, is called “The impact of constructive news on affective and behavioral responses.”
“We choose what is news, and we tend to choose the most alarming,” said Baden, adding that in her research, she found that uplifting stories were more likely to promote positive behavior. Troubling stories, she said, more likely lead to “passive despair,” or hopelessness.
“That’s completely contrary to what most people think,” Baden said, “which is that you scare people into action.”
As part of a class project she assigned, Buchanan and her students looked deeper into the potential downside of exposure to stories of benevolence. She hypothesized that the stories might instill feelings of guilt or self-derogation because people could feel glum for not being as giving and kind as the people they are reading about.
“We found very little evidence of that, and for me, that was quite powerful,” Buchanan said.
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