Consequences of terrorist reading

People who follow daily news about the Boston marathon bombings are more psychologically affected than those who are actually at the scene. This is the conclusion made in the scientific research work on the psychological impact of frequent exposure to violent information through the media.

In the article published on December 9 in the publication of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors said that they have conducted psychological investigations for more than 4,500 American citizens growing up in the period of 2-4 weeks. after the terrorist bombing at the Boston marathon.

Participants were asked to answer questions related to watching the news on television attacks and signs of psychological stress. Research results show that direct witnesses and acquaintances will have stronger psychological shock and also spend more time watching news than those who are not directly present at the scene. However, the strongest psychological shock belongs to the group of people who spend up to 6 hours watching or reading news about this attack every day.

People who follow terrorist news are "indirect psychological damage".(Photo: miratech.com)

According to Roxane Cohen Silver, professor of psychology at the University of California Irvine and co-author of the study, this result shows that capturing information through media also causes psychological impact greater than direct witnessing the incident. The longer the tracking time is, the more serious the effect is. Specifically, the rate of nervous stress in people who watch 6 hours / day is 9 times higher than those who only watch for 1 hour / day.

Commenting on the research results, Bruce Shapiro, executive director of Columbia University's Dart Center for Psychological Journalism and Injury, said that the findings pose an urgent problem in terms of information processing. with press agencies and it is also consistent with a previous research result on the state of "indirect psychological injury".

However, psychological shock is only a short-term phenomenon, not a symptom of " post-traumatic psychological disorder" (PTSD), so more research is needed to be able to concluding the link between psychological shock symptoms and long-term psychological damage.

Silver psychology professor said that people should be aware of the negative impacts on psychology when exposed to many horrible images, especially in the context of modern and growing communication, giving allow audiences to come in contact with a variety of news with dense frequencies.