Some Americans have developed mechanisms to cope with the heightened levels of emotionality associated with the news media during President Donald Trump’s administration, according to new research.
Instead, the researchers were interested in learning more about people’s media consumption habits in general.
“Our interview protocol started with a very general question about the participant’s last encounter with a news story.
Many of the participants reported a significant level of attachment to the news in the wake of Trump’s electoral victory in 2016.
Regardless of whether they were for or against Trump, the participants also tended to express a high level of emotionality when recalling their experiences with the news.
According to participants own accounts, these emotional experiences when encountering news about politics have heightened in recent years,” Wagner told PsyPost.
The study, “Angry, frustrated, and overwhelmed: The emotional experience of consuming news about President Trump“, was authored by María Celeste Wagner and Pablo J. Boczkowski. »