Why we can't stop watching gruesome, graphic war videos on the internet

• Graphic images of war and violence arebeingcirculated more than ever through social media.
• A researcher said people who identify with victims or are anxious about a violent event seek out more graphic content.

It's hard to scroll social media right now without coming across pictures or videos of graphic violence, whether related to the Israel-Hamas war, the war in Ukraine, or violence in the US.

Dr. Roxane Cohen Silver, a distinguished professor at the Department of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine, has been researching the psychological impact of viewing traumatic footage for over 20 years.

Silver told Insider that when she began her research during the Iraq War, people primarily got their news from television, print media, and the radio. That meant that people would have to actively seek out some of the videos and images that are now very difficult to avoid.

Since then, the media landscape has drastically changed.

"People now carry smartphones in their hands," she said. "They're very powerful cameras, and so very graphic images can be taken and distributed instantaneously on social media, and all of that really changes what it is that people are seeing."

She said the extreme exposure to war violence poses serious mental and even physical health risks — and no psychological benefits.

People can react to graphic content as if they experienced trauma

While a screen separates viewers from violent imagery, Silver said that it doesn't necessarily reduce the impact.

Her research found that people who watched more videos of violent events were more likely to exhibit the same symptoms as people who directly experienced trauma.

In the first few weeks of exposure to graphic content, she said viewers can exhibit symptoms of acute stress such as flashbacks, anxiety, hypervigilance, difficulty dismissing the images, and potential nightmares.

The types of images matter too. She said that "the gruesomeness, the graphicness, the bloodiness of the content" tended to correlate with more dramatic symptoms.

People who are afraid are more likely to seek out these images

A catch-22 Silver found is that the people seeking out graphic footage aren't necessarily the ones who are more desensitized and indifferent, but the opposite.

"The more people are stressed out by these images or by this content, the more they're drawn to more images and more content about the violence," she said.

For example, when videos of ISIS beheadings were circulating years ago, her research found that "people who were more worried about terrorism were more likely to be seeking out these images."

This leads to a cycle that's difficult to break.

"More exposure leads to increased stress, and increased stress draws people to seeking out or being exposed to more of that content," Silver said.

People with similar identities to the victims are more impacted

Silver's research also found that people who in some way identify with the victims of a particular event tend to be more drawn to and more impacted by violent content.

For example, after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Silver's research found that people who identified as Hispanic and/or part of the LGBTQ+ community were consuming more content surrounding the event.

This can play into the hands of those who want members of certain groups to be afraid. Silver cited the recent Hamas attack in Israel and the 2019 New Zealand mosque shooting as examples of livestreamed rampages, with perpetrators deliberately circulating the clips online.

"They're trying to create fear in the population, and they're doing it by taking these graphic images," she said, adding that people who are naturally concerned and furious can unknowingly spread fear by watching and reposting the videos.

You can stay informed without exposing yourself to violence

It might feel like you're supporting victims of a crisis by bearing witness to the violence that they're enduring.But Silver said "there's no psychological benefit in seeing the images, and particularly seeing them over and over again." If anything, they can be psychologically harmful.

"I'm not advocating that people avoid the news," she said. "If the ultimate goal is to stay abreast of the latest information, one can do that without exposure to the graphic images."

Taking lessons from her own research, she's made it a point to avoid clicking on violent images and videos when she reads the news. But, she admits, it can be difficult.

"I hold my hands over my eyes if I'm scrolling to try to find the content to read," she said. "I take great pains to avoid the images, but I can still stay very informed."