When the day is filled with news of mass shootings, police malfeasance and “me too” courtroom escapades, people turn to entertainment media, where they watch — as it turns out — more negativity, a new University of California, Davis, study suggests.
Researchers have long known that people use media to manage their emotions. But why do some people watch a Disney animated flick and others a biopic about the holocaust, asked Richard Huskey, assistant professor of communication and corresponding author of the study.
Social media connects people and amplifies different aspects of humanity in good and bad ways. But the effects of social media appear neither universally good nor bad, but rather present an oscillating, dynamic system that can be divisive but also uniting, a new UC Davis study suggests.
When you're "in the zone" — experiencing flow — what is your brain doing? In a study of 140 video game players, a UC Davis assistant professor of communication and cognitive science found that flow involves energy-efficient networking of brain regions.