Source: Pixabay
Feeling stressed or anxious makes people more able to process and internalise bad news, finds a new UCL-led study. The research, published in The Journal of Neuroscience , reveals that a known tendency of people to take more notice of good news than bad news - the optimism bias - disappears when people feel threatened. "Generally, people are quite optimistic - we ignore the bad and embrace the good. And this is indeed what happened when our study participants were feeling calm; but when they were under stress, a different pattern emerged. Under these conditions, they became vigilant to bad news we gave them, even when this news had nothing to do with the source of their anxiety," said co-lead author Dr Tali Sharot (UCL Experimental Psychology). Previous studies have shown that people are more likely to incorporate information into their existing beliefs if the information is positive. Such optimism can be good for well-being and keep people motivated, but can be unhelpful when people underestimate serious risks, so the researchers were seeking to understand if the general human tendency to prioritise good news might vary depending on other conditions.
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