Assistant Professor Sara Grady explained why watching stressful shows can reduce stress in a recent Elle magazine article: “The Rise Of Stressful TV: Why We Can't Stop Watching Shows That Release Adrenaline.” Grady’s research shows that fully embedding oneself in television shows with stressful plots has many benefits to stress levels. 

Grady’s research reveals that watching shows such as Top Boy and Boiling Point with stressful plots can have a positive effect on watchers' stress levels because they require so much attention. 

“Really stressful situations have a way of intruding on our thoughts, like when you can’t seem to stop replaying a fight you had with a loved one in your head. In times like these, entertainment, which is really demanding, can be more useful to us: we need something that commands our full attention, like a complex drama or difficult video game,” said Grady in the Elle magazine article. “This high-demand, highly-challenging content requires more of our attention and effort – which might seem counterintuitive when we are worn out – but, something more demanding allows us to really get sucked into the experience (researchers call this "absorption potential"), and therefore it serves as a better distraction to disrupt the negative mood.”