Victoria Bridgland

Flinders University · College of Education, Psychology and Social Work

Content descriptions presented on sensitive-content screens reduce how often people view negative images. But does this reduction in exposure come at an emotional cost? Across two experiments, we investigated this possibility. In Experiment 1, we compared participants' change in state anxiety when exposed to sensitive-content screens with and witho...

Online platforms like Instagram cover potentially distressing imagery with a sensitive-content screen (blurred imagery plus a content warning). Previous research suggests people typically choose to "uncover" and view screened content. In three studies, we investigated whether the presence of screens mitigates the negative emotional impact of viewin...

Trigger warnings, content warnings, or content notes are alerts about upcoming content that may contain themes related to past negative experiences. Advocates claim that warnings help people to emotionally prepare for or completely avoid distressing material. Critics argue that warnings both contribute to a culture of avoidance at odds with evidenc...

Content warnings are alerts about upcoming content that might be related to upsetting or traumatic experiences. Such warnings are increasingly used by artists and art curators around the world. Though the psychological literature on content warnings suggests they are typically functionally inert, warnings have not yet been studied in the context of...

In an attempt to mitigate the negative impact of graphic online imagery, Instagram has introduced sensitive-content screens—graphic images are obfuscated with a blur and accompanied by a warning. Sensitive-content screens purportedly allow “vulnerable people” with mental-health concerns to avoid potentially distressing content. However, no research...

Content warnings are alerts about upcoming content that might be related to upsetting or traumatic experiences. Such warnings are increasingly used by artists and art curators around the world. Though the psychological literature on content warnings suggests they are typically functionally inert, warnings have not yet been studied in the context of...

Trigger warnings, content warnings, or content notes are alerts about upcoming content that may contain themes related to past negative experiences. Advocates claim that warnings help people to emotionally prepare for or completely avoid distressing material. Critics argue that warnings both contribute to a culture of avoidance at odds with evidenc...

Warning research participants and patients about potential risks associated with participation/treatment is a fundamental part of consent. However, such risk warnings might cause negative expectations and subsequent nocebo effects (i.e., negative expectations cause negative outcomes) in participants. Because no existing review documents how past re...

Burnette et al. aimed to validate two eating disorder symptom measures among transgender adults recruited from Mechanical Turk (MTurk). After identifying several data quality issues, Burnette et al. abandoned this aim and instead documented the issues they faced (e.g., demographic misrepresentation, repeat submissions, inconsistent responses across...

Background and objectives Trigger warnings have been described as helpful—enabling people to “emotionally prepare” for upcoming trauma-related material via “coping strategies.” However, no research has asked people what they think they would do when they come across a warning—an essential first step in providing evidence that trigger warnings are h...

Avoidance is one of the purported benefits and harms of trigger warnings—alerts that upcoming content may contain traumatic themes. Yet, previous research has focused primarily on emotional responses. Here, we used a trauma analogue design to assess people’s avoidance behavior in response to stimuli directly related to an analogue trauma event. Uni...

A trigger warning is an alert that upcoming material containing distressing themes might "trigger" the details and emotion associated with a negative memory to come to mind. Warnings supposedly prevent or minimise this distress. But, do warnings really have this effect? To simulate the experience described above, here, we examined whether warning p...

The COVID-19 pandemic does not fit into prevailing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) models, or diagnostic criteria, yet emerging research shows traumatic stress symptoms as a result of this ongoing global stressor. Current pathogenic event models focus on past, and largely direct, trauma exposure to certain kinds of life-threatening events. Ye...

The COVID-19 pandemic does not fit into prevailing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) models, or diagnostic criteria, yet emerging research shows traumatic stress symptoms as a result of this ongoing global stressor. Current pathogenic event models focus on past, and largely direct, trauma exposure to certain kinds of life-threatening events. Ne...

Trigger warnings are messages alerting people to content containing themes that could cause distressing emotional reactions. Advocates claim that warnings allow people to prepare themselves and subsequently reduce negative reactions toward content, while critics insist warnings may increase negative interpretations. Here, we investigated (a) the em...