In a Time of Crisis, Who has Time to Look Up Facts; The Hypodermic Needle Theory Wins
Do you remember where you were on February 14, 2018? How about where were you the day of the Parkland, FL high school massacre? I was glued to my TV wanting more information. I didn’t search online for more info, as I was fearful I would miss something play out in front of me on the 24-hour news channel. Were you paralyzed like me, listening to emerging details. We were in a time of crisis, believing everything the news had to share. If it was plausible to my brain, I believed it with no facts checked.
The sad events that happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were a true story, part of what happened in American history. But the mind would react the same if it was a false story. According to Psychology Today, consuming a news story that provokes a trauma reaction, such as hearing a story about people being separated from their children, leads to psychological shock. This can prompt the mind to feel foggy, or like it cannot think straight. Thus, the brain is not able to properly analyze the information they are learning. Plus the CDC finds, the first message to reach us is uaually the believed message.
In Nigeria, pandemonium broke out in Nigeria after a rumor that Nigerian soldiers were injecting children with vaccines with the hope of infecting them with the monkey pox disease. Several newspapers reported that over 50 kids had died after they were administered the vaccines. This lead to parents rushing to the schools and removing their children. Maybe it’s a parent’s connection to their children that makes them more vulnerable to the hypodermic needle theory.
In both school trauma events, parents reached out to each other to double check if they heard the information. Depending on how long the media wavelength is, the more people available to find out about a news story, true or false. For some, our mind is smart enough to figure out fact from fiction. However, parental love may get in the way, making us prime targets for the Hypodermic Needle.
