Defensive avoidance: How intimidating, belief-incongruent, and repetitive news disengages social media users from news

Abstract

Social media has become a key news source worldwide, transforming how people access and consume news. Despite easy access and availability of news, many users gradually tend to disengage from news consumption. Research indicates that factors such as overload and fatigue contribute to this trend, while some psychological mechanisms remain less understood, especially in non-Western contexts. To address this, we surveyed 417 Bangladeshi social media users who consume news and tested four hypotheses. Our multiple regression analysis revealed that belief-based selective avoidance, perceived threat, and news redundancy are positively associated with news avoidance, with perceived threat being the strongest factor (β = 0.24, p < 0.001). News redundancy (β = 0.16, p = 0.001) and belief-based selective avoidance (β = 0.10, p = 0.039) also play significant roles. Trust showed a weaker, nonsignificant effect (β = −0.04, p = 0.383). These results indicate that news avoidance reflects selective disengagement from news perceived as threatening, repetitive, or belief-incongruent. By focusing on Bangladesh, this study broadens research on social media news avoidance to the Global South. Exploring some tentative steps for news outlets, such as promoting constructive journalism and reviewing digital-friendly editorial policies, could help reduce news avoidance. Limitations remain in sampling, among others.