Hard wired for negative news? Gender differences in processing broadcast news

The experimental study reported here investigated information processing of broadcast news at the intersection of audience gender (male versus female) and message valence (positive, negative, and ambiguous). Both audio and video dimensions of stimuli were manipulated to create the three valence frames. The data produced interactions between gender and message valence for self-reported arousal, as well as recognition memory and comprehension of news content. In particular, male viewers are associated with a negativity bias, reporting the highest arousal levels and producing the best recognition memory and comprehension scores for negatively valenced messages. Women, in contrast, show signs of an avoidance response to negatively framed news, rating positively valenced stories as more arousing as well as processing such messages more effectively than negatively framed messages. Within the information-processing paradigm these findings suggest that the gender variable deserves more research attention. The results also have implications for journalism practitioners.