Bad News Travels Faster

The Trap of Bad News: How a Negative News Diet Shapes Our Hearts and Minds

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

My day began like any other—slightly groggy, coffee barely brewed, I turned on the BBC’s Today programme to catch the news. With a heavy note of forewarning, the announcer informed me that after a brief respite of rain, the nation should be braced for a return to challenging heatwave temperatures. It was a small thing, just a daily meteorological update but it struck me that even the weather is now part of our diet of bad news. And yet, the prospect was surely a joyous one, sunshine would be bathing the UK again, in a summer season so often defined by grey skies. Instead of celebration, the forecast made good weather sound menacing; something else to be wary and afraid of and married to the terrible tales emanating from Gaza, Sudan Ukraine and elsewhere lent its weight to the deep dread that’s becoming a permanent fixture of our collective psyches. In that moment, it struck me how, even in the smallest ways, we’re conditioned to view hope and pleasure through filters of worry and negativity. Of course we need to carry water with us, avoid being too energetic at the hottest times of the day and for sure it can be uncomfortable in a nation better used to being perpetually soggy but to be filled with trepidation about a return to blue skies seemed at best ironic.

The steady stream of negative news is not just a quirk of contemporary media, mainstream and social—it’s a phenomenon with measurable consequences for mental health. With a news agenda determined by engagement and algorithms the overwhelming tsunami of reasons to be fearful instead of cheerful is hard to dodge and even harder to remain resilient to. Studies show that exposure to incessant bad news can elevate feelings of anxiety, stress, and sadness, leaving us all in a persistent state of unease and the effect, often referred to as “headline stress disorder,” involves tangible physical symptoms like insomnia and headaches, as well as emotional exhaustion.

News consumption that focuses relentlessly on crisis, disaster, and conflict activates our brain’s threat response, flooding us with cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, this state of chronic vigilance wears down our ability to regulate emotions, leading to a cycle of despair and helplessness.

When every news update implies impending catastrophe—whether it’s weather, politics, economy, or global affairs—our perception of control dwindles. The subtle shift from information to fear-mongering fosters a sense that as individuals we are mere spectators in a world run amok. This learned helplessness is problematic in ways we can measure: research finds that feeling powerless reduces our likelihood to act, to vote, to volunteer, or even to change our personal habits in positive ways.

The paradox is that a well-informed citizenry is crucial for a functioning democracy, but overemphasising problems at the expense of solutions makes us less likely to believe in the power of personal and collective action. Looking at the hand-wringing but action eschewing state of the populace, whether its about pollution in our rivers or genocide beyond our borders it’s clear that the news is having an increasingly unhealthy impact, keeping us all in a constant state of what therapists call ‘fight or flight’, even before we tackle the day to day challenges of our individual lives.

This skewed diet of bad news not only disturbs our inner equilibrium but also warps our social relationships. When media frames every event as a catastrophe, it becomes easy to adopt an “us vs. them” mentality. Negativity drives clicks and engagement, encouraging outlets to focus on the most divisive and emotionally charged angles. Over time, this steady drip of outrage provocation fosters the hyper-polarised attitudes that are poisoning politics and making it harder for people to empathise with others or seek common ground.

At the same time, as constant negativity saps our energy, many of those I talk to have tuned out altogether, leading to wide-spread apathy and disengagement. If every story ends in doom, why bother? And what of the message it gives young people, not yet world weary but certainly being fast-tracked there. Do we really want the next generation to grow up filled only with a sense of our individual insignificance?

Balance shouldn’t require ignoring the world’s real problems but it requires the maintaining of perspective. Highlighting hope, progress, and the genuine possibility of change is not naive, but necessary for our mental well-being and social cohesion, for our ability to engage with democracy and our sense of our own agency in our lives, communities and countries. Journalists, policymakers, global platforms and consumers alike need to recognise that the way we report and digest information shapes reality itself and the current status quo is as responsible for our state of hyper-tension and ineffectualness as the mayhem triggered by the personal ambitions and malign ambitions our current crop of despotic and autocratic (generally) male leaders.

Every day, we’re offered a choice: to see sunshine as a promise, or a threat. The consequences resonate far beyond the forecast—they insinuate themselves into the very fabric of society. So I’d ask those who profit from curating our news cycle and have a vested interest in preserving a robust and credible media that maintains the potential to hold power to account to think more carefully about presenting a balanced diet. Every day across the globe good things are happening, people are committing small acts of kindness that pervade our everyday lives , oceans are being restored and scientific advances are making positive things possible that were unthinkable a mere decade ago. Tell me about them please, before we’re reduced to being mere fodder for fake news and manipulative propaganda out of which the great democratic miracle that gave purpose to all our lives will struggle to survive.