News can affect how we feel and what we notice. Here is what the evidence supports, where it is weaker, and what it does not prove about Daymend.
Short experiments and longer studies suggest that repeated negative news can lower mood and increase distress.
Limit: The sample was small and the outcome was immediate mood, not lasting mental health.
Johnston & Davey, British Journal of Psychology, 1997
Limit: Longitudinal data can track an association, but it cannot fully rule out other causes.
Boukes & Vliegenthart, Journal of Media Psychology, 2017
Limit: This measured a brief reaction during the pandemic, not everyday news use over months.
Buchanan et al., PLOS ONE, 2021
Reporting that includes credible responses can change how people feel about a story, their sense that they can respond, and how credible they find it.
Limit: One story and one experimental setting cannot represent all constructive journalism.
McIntyre & Gibson, Southern Communication Journal, 2016
Limit: This was a brief online experiment during the COVID-19 period. Effects can depend on the topic and how the story is told.
Overgaard, Journalism, 2023
Limit: This was an industry-funded audience study, not peer-reviewed independent research.
SmithGeiger / Solutions Journalism Network, 2021
Limit: The report was not peer-reviewed and its original primary page is no longer available. This link is a secondary research overview.
Gielan, Furl & Jackson, Institute for Applied Positive Research, 2017
Audience attention and newsroom choices can both reward negative framing, even when the underlying situation is mixed.
Limit: The result concerns headline clicks on one news platform, not whether negativity keeps people informed or well.
Robertson et al., Nature Human Behaviour, 2023
Limit: The average pattern varied by person and country, so it is not a universal response.
Soroka, Fournier & Nir, PNAS, 2019
Limit: This is a revised institutional working paper, not a peer-reviewed journal article, and it covers one exceptional news period.
Sacerdote, Sehgal & Cook, NBER WP 28110, rev. March 2021
Small randomized studies suggest that reducing social-media use can improve some wellbeing measures. News avoidance data adds context, not proof of benefit.
Limit: The study was small, short, student-only, and about social media rather than a finite news product.
Hunt et al., Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2018
Limit: A short break is different from a lasting habit, and the study did not isolate news content.
Lambert et al., Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2022
Limit: This is self-reported cross-country survey data. It does not establish why avoidance rose or what intervention would help.
Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026
A wider research tradition links positive emotion and gratitude practices with small improvements in wellbeing, under specific conditions.
Limit: This is a broad psychological theory and review, not a test of a positive-news app.
Fredrickson, American Psychologist, 2001
Limit: Effects are modest, studies vary, and gratitude exercises are not the same as reading positive news.
International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 2023; meta-analysis, 2025
The research supports offering a finite, less negatively skewed way to read news. It does not prove that Daymend treats anxiety or creates lasting wellbeing change. We will not claim that it does.
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