Mean World Syndrome

Mean world syndrome is a proposed cognitive bias in which people come to perceive the world as being more dangerous than it actually is, a perception attributed to long-term moderate to heavy exposure to violence-related content in mass media. The syndrome was coined by the communications professor George Gerbner during the television era of the 1970s and was initially studied as an effect of broadcast media specifically, though subsequent research has shown that social media platforms now play a major role in its spread as well. Proponents of the syndrome hold that viewers exposed to violence-related media content can experience increased fear, anxiety, pessimism and a heightened state of alert in response to perceived threats, and the study of mean world syndrome more broadly found that media of all kinds has the power to directly influence and inform people's attitudes, beliefs and opinions about the world around them.