Trigger warnings may backfire by making people more anxious before viewing sensitive content without reducing emotional distress or avoidance behavior.
Many people believe that trigger warnings help protect individuals from emotional distress by giving them a chance to avoid or mentally prepare for upsetting content. But new research suggests that these warnings might not work the way we expect.
A recent analysis published in Clinical Psychological Science reveals that trigger warnings can actually increase anxiety before someone even sees the content. Despite that added worry, people are just as likely to view the material and feel just as distressed afterward, whether they received a warning or not.
“When people see trigger warnings, it makes them feel anxious, but that anxiety doesn’t seem to be any sort of helpful emotional preparation,” explained Victoria M. E. Bridgland of Flinders University, who coauthored the study with researchers from Harvard University. “We need more strategies to give people, versus just putting a warning on something and assuming that is going to give them a toolkit for mental health.”
Study Analysis and Conclusions
Bridgland, along with Payton J. Jones and Benjamin W. Bellet from Harvard University, reached their conclusions by comparing the results of 12 studies about the effects of content warnings on participants’ negative emotional reactions, avoidance behavior, and comprehension. The majority of these studies included a mix of participants who were trauma survivors and people who did not report a history of traumatic experiences. The researchers’ analysis resulted in four findings:
- Warnings increase anticipatory anxiety. Across five studies, participants who read content warnings were more anxious prior to viewing potentially triggering material than those who did not.
- Warnings did not influence emotional reactions to content. Across nine studies, content warnings did not affect participants’ feelings of distress, fear, or anxiety after viewing sensitive content.
- Warnings do not increase avoidance. Across five studies, participants viewed troubling content at about the same rate regardless of whether or not they received a trigger warning.
- Warnings do not impact comprehension. Across three studies, content warnings did not affect participants’ understanding of written material.
“Existing published research almost unanimously suggests that trigger warnings do not mitigate distress,” Bridgland and colleagues wrote. “Indeed, trigger warnings (including those used in the current studies) typically warn people about the distressing reactions they may have, but do not explain how to reduce these reactions.”
These findings also suggest that people do not use content warnings to avoid viewing triggering content, even when they have the option to do so, the researchers noted. This may be due to a “forbidden fruit” effect, which could make potentially aversive material more tempting to viewers.
Given that many people do not use content warnings to avoid troubling material, Bridgland’s ongoing research suggests that emotional-regulation training could help people use these warnings to better prepare themselves beforehand.
Reference: “A Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Trigger Warnings, Content Warnings, and Content Notes” by Victoria M. E. Bridgland, Payton J. Jones and Benjamin W. Bellet, 17 August 2023, Clinical Psychological Science.
DOI: 10.1177/21677026231186625
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