Watching or listening to negative news in the morning, even for a few minutes, would have an immediate effect on stress levels and cause mood swings throughout the day. Indeed, a push on your phone, a radio announcement or images of bad news can affect your emotions and make you more depressed throughout the day and less efficient.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) wanted to understand the impact of bad news broadcast on television and radio on the mood and mental health of individuals.
To carry out their study, they placed 110 participants in two different situations. The first group observed three minutes of negative reporting before 10 a.m. The second group watched three minutes of positive news stories without raving about videos of puppies, cats or squirrels waterskiing. Six hours later, the participants had to answer a questionnaire to assess their level of stress and their emotions.
The study’s findings revealed that people who watched only three minutes of negative news in the morning were 27% more likely to be unhappy during the day than those who did not.
The next step of this study will be to analyze the negative effects of this type of information on productivity and performance. For in a previous study in the 1980s, Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania followed insurance salespeople and found that optimistic salespeople made 37% more sales than their pessimistic counterparts and concluded that good humor made you more productive.
Since the majority of news is negative, try turning off the TV and radio in the morning and stopping push notifications on your phone or email. These alerts draw your attention away from the present moment, towards negative emotions and can lead you to sadness and a decline in your performance.
Read also:
Yoga, useful against depression
People who spend an hour on their smartphone every day are depressed
Depression or depression: how to know?
