The human psyche gets used to bad news over time.
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
In Israel, a group of psychologists have established that the human psyche, in constant conflict with bad news, develops resistance to them, and reacts less painfully with time. Experiments that were conducted by scientists were based on the emotional effect of Stroop. This kind of effect is manifested when a person undergoes the same testing, which is to correctly name the color with which the word is printed. In the survey, Israeli scientists used two types of words: neutral (street, house) and negative (terrorist, wounded). The experiment showed that subjects spent more time determining the color of negative words.
Psychologists wondered if the effect would disappear if a person would only pass a test with negative words or his level would remain the same. Carrying out several experiments showed that a person who reads negative words for a long time begins to show results with almost the same time as a person who worked only with a neutral group of words.
After the scientists repeated the experiment with the second group of volunteers, who were also asked to evaluate their own mood before and after testing, they determined several more effects. First of all, passing the Stroop test only with negative words, more spoiled the mood of the subjects, in contrast to the group where the test was conducted in neutral words. Also, the duration of the test did not affect the mood of a person, which scientists also attribute to their own theory.
One of the authors of the study noted that it is possible to transfer the results obtained to the reading of the news tape. Scientists are sure that if in the morning to notice in the headline of the newspaper information about the tragedy (explosion, murder, etc.), then it is necessary to read the article in full, after that the psyche will be less susceptible to any negative factors.
However, experts in their studies focus on another. As they state, testing the sling is widely used for various research and diagnostic purposes. If the emotional effect of perceiving a large number of negative cards is reduced, then it is able to distort in some way the results. Experts are sure that it is necessary to separately consider the number and order of presentation of cards with words.
The scientific community has long and openly stated about the "reproducibility crisis", which is connected with the difficulties of articulating the results of psychological research, and this poses an immediate threat to the psychological science as a whole. To solve this problem is working in several directions. First of all, it is proposed to toughen the criteria for statistics, on which unreliable results are rejected. In addition, 13 different experiments were conducted, from economic classical games to relatively new ones, which simultaneously reproduced 36 scientific groups. According to preliminary data, the previously announced effects in 10 cases out of 13 have actually been confirmed.
