A new study found that people with poorer mental health are more likely to browse negative content online, which worsens their mood and creates a cycle of negative behavior.
The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, shows that this relationship is both causal and two-way: browsing negative content can worsen mood, and a bad mood leads to browsing more negative content.
Key Findings:
- Researchers analyzed the web browsing history and mental health data of over 1,000 participants.
- People with worse moods browsed more negative content, and doing so made their mood even worse.
- In experiments, participants exposed to negative websites reported worse moods and then chose to view more negative content, showing a feedback loop.
Intervention
The researchers tested adding "content labels" to Google search results, similar to nutrition labels on food. These labels informed participants about the emotional impact of a webpage (positive, negative, or neutral).
“We are accustomed to seeing content labels on our groceries, providing nutritional information such as sugar, calories, protein, and vitamins to help us make informed decisions about what we eat. A similar approach could be applied to the content we consume online, empowering people to make healthier choices online,” co-lead author Professor Tali Sharot of UCL, London, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.
Participants were more likely to choose positively-labeled websites, and their mood improved afterward.
Tool Development
The team created a free browser extension called Digital Diet, which adds labels to Google search results, helping users make informed and healthier choices about the content they view online.
“Our results show that browsing negatively valenced content not only mirrors a person’s mood but can also actively worsen it. This creates a feedback loop that can perpetuate mental health challenges over time,” Sharot said.
About the study
Over 1,000 study participants answered questions about their mental health and shared their web browsing history with the researchers. Using natural language processing methods, the researchers analysed the emotional tone of the webpages participants visited.
They found that participants with worse moods and mental health symptoms were inclined to browse more negative content online, and after browsing, those who browsed more negative content felt worse.
In an additional study, the researchers manipulated the websites people visited, exposing some participants to negative content and others to neutral content. They found that those exposed to negative websites reported worse moods afterward, demonstrating a causal effect of browsing negative content on mood.
When these participants were then asked to browse the internet freely, those who had previously viewed negative websites—and consequently experienced a worse mood—chose to view more negative content. This finding highlights that the relationship is bi-directional: negative content affects mood, and a worsened mood drives the consumption of more negative content.
