A new study from MIT researchers reveals a direct link between browsing negative content online and worsening mental health. The study suggests that individuals struggling with mental health are more likely to engage with distressing material online, which in turn exacerbates their symptoms, creating a harmful feedback loop.
The research, led by Tali Sharot, an adjunct professor of cognitive neuroscience at MIT, and Christopher A. Kelly, a former PhD student at MIT and now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, was published on November 21 in Nature Human Behavior. The study analyzes the behavior of over 1,000 participants, revealing how certain types of content can negatively influence mood and mental well-being.
“People with mental health challenges tend to seek out more negative or fear-inducing content, which worsens their symptoms,” Sharot explained. “This creates a cycle where browsing negative material leads to even worse moods and more negative browsing.”
To explore this, the researchers used natural language processing to score the emotional content of web pages, categorizing them based on negative, positive, and various emotional tones, such as anger, fear, and sadness. Participants were also asked about their mental health before and after browsing sessions. Results showed that participants who visited more positive content experienced improved moods, while those with worse pre-browsing moods were more likely to gravitate toward negative pages.
In a follow-up experiment, participants were exposed to either six negative or six neutral web pages and then asked to browse for an additional 10 minutes. Those who had viewed negative pages tended to browse more negative content afterward and reported feeling worse than those who saw neutral material.
The study is notable for shifting focus from the quantity of online use—like screen time or social media frequency—to the nature of the content being consumed. The authors argue that while previous research has produced mixed conclusions about screen time and mental health, their findings point to a clear causal relationship between emotional content and mood.
In a further attempt to test whether interventions could alter these browsing habits, the researchers provided participants with search engine results pages that included labels indicating whether the content would likely “make them feel better” or “worse.” Those given these emotional cues were less likely to click on negative content and more likely to choose positive material. Participants who chose more positive content reported a significant improvement in their mood.
As a result of these findings, the researchers have developed a tool called “Digital Diet,” which helps users make more informed decisions about the content they engage with online. The plug-in tool scores Google search results on three criteria: emotion, knowledge, and actionability. Emotion scores indicate whether content is generally positive or negative, knowledge scores reflect the helpfulness of the content, and actionability scores assess the usefulness of the information.
The tool, available for download starting this week, aims to help users break free from the harmful cycle of negative online content and regain control over their mental health.
“People with worse mental health tend to seek out negative content, which exacerbates their symptoms,” Kelly said. “Our goal with this tool is to give them the ability to choose content that supports their well-being and helps them break this cycle.”
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