Psychologist links news avoidance to brain’s threat bias

A psychology researcher says growing news avoidance reflects a predictable strain on human attention, rather than apathy or weakness. In an essay published by The Conversation and republished by ScienceDaily, Ali Jasemi of Wilfrid Laurier University argues that brains shaped to detect immediate danger are now being asked to process a constant stream of distant crises.

Jasemi, a lecturer in psychology who studies social development and psychological well-being, points to the Reuters Institute’s 2025 Digital News Report as evidence that many people are pulling back. The report found that 69% of Canadians at least sometimes avoid news, while 40% of people globally say they do so sometimes or often.

According to Reuters Institute findings cited by Jasemi, people commonly said news worsened their mood, left them feeling overwhelmed or made them feel unable to act. Jasemi argues that reaction fits what psychologists know about the human tendency to give more weight to negative information.

Threat bias meets nonstop feeds

Jasemi describes news fatigue through the lens of negativity bias, a well-established finding in cognitive science. Research cited in The Conversation says people tend to notice negative information faster, remember it longer and treat it as more significant than positive information.

That bias likely helped early humans respond to immediate threats, Jasemi writes. A nearby predator or conflict demanded attention in a way that pleasant but nonurgent information did not.

The problem, according to Jasemi, is scale. Human threat systems once dealt mostly with local risks, but modern news delivery can place war, economic turmoil, climate disasters and violent crime from multiple places in front of the same person within hours.

A study in Nature Human Behaviour cited by Jasemi examined more than 105,000 news headlines that received nearly 6 million views. The researchers found that each added negative word was associated with higher click-through rates, while positive words had the opposite relationship.

Jasemi also cites research indicating that people show stronger physical reactions to negative news than to positive news. In his account, the body can respond before a person has determined whether the information poses any direct threat.

When news use becomes disruptive

Some researchers have described a pattern called Problematic News Consumption, or PNC, Jasemi notes. The framework refers to news use tied to preoccupation, emotional dysregulation and interference with daily life.

In a 2022 study cited by Jasemi, researchers found that 17% of American adults met criteria for severe levels of PNC. Among that group, 61% said they felt unwell quite a bit or very much, compared with 6% of people outside that category.

Jasemi says the burden can be greater for minority populations. He cites research showing that repeatedly seeing harm directed at one’s own group can affect people psychologically, even when they are not the direct target.

For immigrants and racialized communities, Jasemi writes, stepping away from coverage may be harder when events involve their countries of origin or communities with which they identify.

Healthier habits, not total withdrawal

Jasemi does not recommend abandoning the news. He argues that democratic life depends on access to accurate information, and that avoiding trustworthy reporting can worsen the effects of misinformation.

Instead, he recommends setting defined times for news consumption, choosing in-depth reporting over frequent bursts of unreliable social media posts, and separating awareness from action. Research on perceived control and stress, he says, shows that distress rises when people know about problems but see no way to respond.

Jasemi also advises readers to recognize “rage bait,” meaning provocative online content designed to trigger anger and increase engagement. His conclusion is that the volume of difficult news is unlikely to shrink, but people can be more deliberate about how they take it in.

This story draws on original reporting from ScienceDaily.