Trigger Warning Have a Weird Effect on People, New Paper Finds

"In theory, trigger warnings, also known ascontent warnings, should save us from seeing something upsetting - whether it's a plain old gross-out, or some legitimately disturbing footage that can ruin your entire day. They've become more important in an age where even the most mainstream social media sites have turned into veritable snuff film hubs, platforming all kinds of gore that gets delivered straight to your timeline."

"But we say "in theory," because as new research explores, it turns out these warnings have an unexpected and counterproductive effect: luring us into watching the flagged material anyway - an extension of the undying human instinct to jump into stuff that we know goes against our best interests. "Trigger warnings seem to foster a 'forbidden fruit' effect for many people whereby when something is off-limits, it often becomes more tempting,""

"In the study, the researchers asked 261 participants between the age of 17 and 25 to log how they responded to trigger warnings they encountered over the course of seven days. An overwhelming 90 percent of them said they still opened the sensitive content they came across - and not because they felt emotionally prepared, but because they were simply curious."

Trigger warnings aim to prevent exposure to upsetting material but can have the opposite effect by increasing curiosity. A behavioral study asked 261 participants aged 17–25 to log responses to trigger warnings over seven days. Ninety percent of participants opened sensitive content despite warnings, commonly driven by curiosity rather than emotional readiness. Reported mental-health conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression did not predict greater avoidance of flagged material. The findings indicate that current trigger-warning implementations may not protect vulnerable viewers and warrant reconsideration or redesign.

Read at Futurism