Watching Certain Videos Can Lower Stress as Effectively as Meditation

Guess which type: Comedy, puppies, or something else?

Image: Caterina Trimarchi/Shutterstock. Used under the writer’s license

Among the common expert suggestions for lowering stress and anxiety is to cut back on media consumption. That appears not to be categorically great advice, however.

Depends on the media.

Stories about war, polarized politics or neighborhood crime clearly fall into the stress-inducing bucket. Watching cute puppy or baby videos, on the other hand, would seem like mood boosters. And what about comedy?

New experiments investigated whether certain types of media can lower stress levels, and how effectively. Turns out inspirational videos that engendered hope beat out comedy at quashing stress, and even matched the positive effects of guided meditation.

“We as a society tend to look at media use through a very negative lens,” said the study’s lead author, Robin Nabi, PhD, a University of California Santa Barbara professor who studies the interplay between emotion and cognition. “But media use is one of the most common ways that people try to cope with stress, and it has the capacity to provide benefits, particularly when it comes to relaxation.”

“Put a dent in that stress”