Investigating the negative-cognitivetriad-hypothesis of news choice in Germany and South Korea: Does depression predict selective exposure to negative news?

Research has constantly revealed that depressive symptoms usually include negative cognitions about the world, the future, and the self, termed the negative cognitive triad. More recently, research on the stress generation hypothesis found that depressed individuals self-select themselves into situations that resonate with their depressive symptoms. In the present study, we combined these two discoveries, applied them to everyday news selection, and questioned whether measures of depression explain news choices related to negative vs. positive news about the self, the world, and the future. We tested this idea in two independent selective exposure studies in Germany (N = 395) and South Korea (N = 225). Analyses indicated that explicit (not implicit) measures of depression were associated with news choice in favor of negative news in both countries. We discuss the implications of these findings for both selective exposure research and the understanding of depression.