{"id":8716,"date":"2023-10-15T14:59:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T06:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=8716"},"modified":"2023-10-15T15:01:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T07:01:02","slug":"caution-content-warnings-do-not-reduce-stress-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/caution-content-warnings-do-not-reduce-stress-study-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Caution: Content warnings do not reduce stress, study shows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Advocates for the use of trigger warnings suggest that they can help people avoid or emotionally prepare for encountering content related to a past trauma. But trigger warnings may not fulfill either of these functions, according to an <\/strong>analysis<\/strong><\/a> published in <\/strong>Clinical Psychological Science, <\/strong><\/em>a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, warnings appear to heighten the anticipatory anxiety a person may feel prior to viewing sensitive material while making them no less likely to consume that content, wrote Victoria M. E. Bridgland of Flinders University, and Payton J. Jones and Benjamin W. Bellet of Harvard University. Additionally, participants\u2019 distress levels after viewing potentially triggering material were the same regardless of whether or not they received a warning. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Nathan Dumlao from Unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen people see trigger warnings it makes them feel anxious, but that anxiety doesn\u2019t seem to be any sort of helpful emotional preparation,\u201d Bridgland said. \u201cWe need more strategies to give people versus just putting a warning on something and assuming that is going to give them a toolkit for mental health.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bridgland, Jones, and Bellet reached their conclusions by comparing the results of 12 studies about the effects of content warnings on participants\u2019 negative emotional reactions, avoidance behavior, and comprehension. The majority of these studies included a mix of participants who were trauma survivors and people who did not report a history of traumatic experiences. The researchers\u2019 analysis resulted in four findings: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Warnings increase anticipatory anxiety. Across five studies, participants who read content warnings were more anxious prior to viewing potentially triggering material than those who did not. <\/li>
  • Warnings did not influence emotional reactions to content. Across nine studies, content warnings did not affect participants\u2019 feelings of distress, fear, or anxiety after viewing sensitive content. <\/li>
  • Warnings do not increase avoidance. Across five studies, participants viewed troubling content at about the same rate regardless of whether or not they received a trigger warning.  <\/li>
  • Warnings do not impact comprehension. Across three studies, content warnings did not affect participants\u2019 understanding of written material. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cExisting published research almost unanimously suggests that trigger warnings do not mitigate distress,\u201d Bridgland and colleagues wrote. \u201cIndeed, trigger warnings (including those used in the current studies) typically warn people about the distressing reactions they may have but do not explain how to reduce these reactions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    These findings also suggest that people do not use content warnings to avoid viewing triggering content, even when they have the option to do so, the researchers noted. This may be due to a \u201cforbidden fruit\u201d effect, which could make potentially aversive material more tempting to viewers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Given that many people do not use content warnings to avoid troubling material, Bridgland\u2019s ongoing research suggests that emotional-regulation training could help people use these warnings to better prepare themselves beforehand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Warnings appear to heighten the anticipatory anxiety a person may feel prior to viewing sensitive material while making them no less likely to consume that content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,806,919,89,2357],"class_list":["post-8716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsmakers","tag-health","tag-health-products","tag-healthcare","tag-healthy-foods","tag-healthy-products"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8716"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8720,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8716\/revisions\/8720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}