On the heels of a study about a lot of people saying they have become burned out during the pandemic, partially because of all the bad news in the news, comes a new study.
It come from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They say they have found that reading about the world’s “impending doom” has become incredibly addicting as people browse through the internet, saying that scrolling through bad news on social media, or “doomscrolling,” as they term it, has become increasingly common during the COVID pandemic.
But they also found that while some people cannot help themselves and have to read every last bit of information, others prefer to avoid bad news. And the scientists say they have discovered the reason why some people prefer not to know.
Using monkeys trained to recognize symbols which indicate something unpleasant was about to happen, the scientists discovered that two specific areas of the brain stored information about the animals’ attitudes towards both good and bad possibilities and how they reacted to those attitudes.
Maybe this study will serve as a reminder that being careful about what we put into our brains can affect our outlook on the world, both good and bad.
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