Warnings About Distressing Content Don’t Deter Young Adults, Study Finds

Research suggests that content warnings on social media may increase curiosity rather than discourage viewing.

Trigger warnings commonly appear as notices on social media posts. A new study suggests most young adults choose to view flagged content anyway. Stringer/AFP via Getty Images

Australian researchers found that most young people exposed to online trigger warnings—brief notices alerting users to potentially distressing material—choose to ignore them.

The study, published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, followed 261 participants aged 17-25 over a week, asking them to record encounters with trigger warnings, whether they chose to engage with or avoid the content, and their reasons for doing so.