Record Number of Canadians and Global Audiences Are Actively Choosing to Avoid the News

Canadians Leading a Growing Trend of News Avoidance

According to НВ — Техно: June 5, 14:30 – According to the Reuters Institute's 2025 report, roughly 69% of Canadians are now deliberately steering clear of news, marking a significant rise in information avoidance. Worldwide, this figure has hit an unprecedented 40%. This behavior stems from multiple factors, including a negativity bias that shapes how people process and react to information. For context, the Reuters Institute is a respected global research center studying journalism and digital media trends.

How Negative News Affects Mental Health

A study published in Nature Human Behaviour examined over 105,000 real headlines and found that negative news strongly impacts consumers' psychological well-being. The data shows that 17% of American adults suffer from a severe form of problematic news consumption syndrome. This syndrome involves an excessive immersion in news, leading to emotional exhaustion and heightened anxiety.

Now, in 2026, these findings underscore the need to understand why people are withdrawing from news consumption. This trend demands attention from both media outlets and researchers, as negative news can have long-term consequences for mental health.

The rising tendency to avoid news may signal that media organizations must adapt how they present information to reduce its harmful effects on audiences. This issue is especially pressing in today’s information landscape, where people are overwhelmed by content. Exploring the root causes of this phenomenon could help develop effective strategies to improve news consumption and ease emotional fatigue among readers.