Netflix portrayals of violence diminish teens' understanding of pain - study

A new analysis of TV shows and movies that teens watch via the Internet on the Netflix streaming service suggests that too often, it shows misleading depictions of pain, portraying pain as something arising only through a violent act or injury. Instead of trivializing the experience, Netflix could do more to educate young people about much more common, everyday pain, urged psychologists in Canada and the UK.

Adolescents watching popular shows like Stranger Things and Sex Education or films such as Spiderman: Homecoming are exposed to an average of 10 incidents of pain every hour, according to the study just published in the international journal Pain under the title “The sociocultural context of adolescent pain: portrayals of pain in popular adolescent media.”

The researchers at the University of Calgary and the University of Bath analyzed how characters’ experiences of pain were depicted across different media aimed at 12 to 18-year-olds. They wanted to assess what painful incidents characters experienced as well as how the characters themselves and others around them responded to painful incidents.

They said it was the first time research has examined how pain is portrayed in media for adolescents despite this age group being in the developmental period when chronic pain typically emerges.

Their analysis looked at ten trending or popular films and six TV series from 2015 in North America that featured teen protagonists. They include Enola Holmes, To All The Boys I Loved Before, Sex Education, and Stranger Things.

Over the 10 films and six television series (which equated to over 60 hours of footage), the researchers identified 732 painful incidents - a mean of 10.24 incidents of pain per hour; violent pain or injury being the most common type of pain depicted occurring in more than half of instances (57 %).

Boy characters were more likely to experience pain in comparison with girl characters (77%), and they were often portrayed as heroic figures coming to the rescue, being twice as likely than girls to help sufferers. Girls were often portrayed as being more emotional than boys in response to witnessing pain.

White characters are depicted as pain sufferers more often than characters with a racialized identity, with 78% of white characters suffering pain, compared to 22% of racialized characters suffering pain. When a person from a racialized identity experienced pain, they were more likely to experience pain caused by another person (80%).  

Examples of everyday pain (such as characters falling over or bumping their knees) and chronic-type pain (headache, abdominal pain, backache) are much less common (represented in only 21% and less than one percent of incidents, respectively).

Other characters generally showed a lack of empathy when responding to pain. They commonly responded to sufferers with criticism (24%) and humor (10%).

Media is one of the largest influences on children development

Psychologist Dr. Melanie Noel of the University of Calgary (Canada), who led the research, explained why this research matters: “The media are among the most powerful engines of influence on children’s development and could be harnessed to address pain and suffering in the world. Stories matter. Fictional stories can matter more in some cases than real-life stories. So, let’s create stories to reflect the world we want to see: A humane, diverse, inclusive, equitable, compassionate, and caring world.”

Dr. Abbie Jordan of the psychology department and Center for Pain Research at the University of Bath in the UK stressed the importance of accurately representing pain experiences: “If we’re not showing the types of pain that adolescents might typically experience like back pain and menstrual pain, then we’re trivializing them. We’re not doing a great job of enabling them to think about how to manage or talk about pain and how to show empathy when other people experience pain. This research matters because if every film and television series showed a boy being a ‘tough guy’ when they experience pain and a girl as a ‘damsel in distress’ who needs to be saved, they might think they have to be like that in real life. This depiction reinforces old-fashioned ideas about gender and is misleading.” 

The lack of empathy displayed by characters in the media could also play out in real life. Research suggests that when people see kindness in media, they start mirroring this behavior themselves, Jordan continued. . On the flip side, watching violent painful acts can make people care less about others’ pain.

The study also highlights the need for more realistic depictions of pain and diverse representations of pain sufferers. “Sadly, we anticipated an overrepresentation of pain in white individuals compared with people of color, highlighting the underrepresentation of pain in marginalized groups,” Jordan noted. “Our findings really highlight the importance of pain researchers working with the media to find better ways to represent the experience of pain and how individuals respond to pain in others, particularly around marginalized groups.” The findings add that how the pain of young children aged four to six is portrayed in popular media must also be examined. 

Noel called on Netflix to listen to their findings. “I want the company to take this seriously and get excited and inspired to directly influence millions of children around the world. They have a monumental opportunity to influence the compassion and humanity we see in our children and our future world. We would love to work collaboratively with Netflix and movie/television creators on increasing the representation of girls and people of color in instances where pain is experienced and start a dialogue around how to more realistically respond to pain in others, thinking about pro-social behaviors and displaying empathy.”