Have you ever opened a boring work email or looked at a plain photo, yet felt an unexpected wave of sadness or negativity?
You aren’t imagining things, and you aren’t “just being sensitive.”
According to new research published in 2025 by Tamar Amishav and Nilly Mor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, this is a specific psychological phenomenon.
Their study uncovers how “background noise” – the things happening around us – changes how we feel about neutral events, especially for those navigating depression.
If you have ever felt like a bad mood bleeds into everything else, this research explains exactly why that happens, and why “just thinking positive” might not be the quick fix we hope for.
It’s Not You, It’s the Context
We rarely experience things in a vacuum.
Whether we are scrolling social media or walking down the street, every specific moment happens in the context of other things.
Tamar Amishav and Nilly Mor discovered that for individuals with depressive symptoms, this “context” matters immensely.
In their study, participants looked at “target” pictures.
Some were negative (like a sad scene) and some were totally neutral (like someone grocery shopping).
However, these pictures weren’t shown alone.
They were surrounded by “peripheral” images: background photos that were either negative, neutral, or positive.
Here is what the experts found:
- The Spillover: When a neutral picture was surrounded by negative background images, people with higher levels of depression rated the neutral picture as significantly more negative.
- The Filter Issue: Depression makes it much harder to filter out irrelevant background noise. The negativity from the background “spilled over” and colored the neutral moment.
The “Car Accident” Effect
To understand how this looks in real life, the researchers offer a relatable example.
Imagine you are reading a completely neutral email from a colleague about a meeting time.
At the exact same moment, a news pop-up appears on your screen showing a car accident.
- For someone without depression, the email is just an email.
- For someone with depressive symptoms, the negative feeling from the car accident image can bleed into the email.
Suddenly, that neutral message feels heavy, sad, or overwhelming.
The researchers explain that this happens because people with depressive symptoms are often more susceptible to “irrelevant negative information”.
Why “Just Look on the Bright Side” Doesn’t Work
One of the most profound findings from Amishav and Mor’s research is that positive background noise didn’t have the same power as the negative noise.
The researchers hoped that surrounding a negative picture with happy, positive images might make people feel better.
Surprisingly, it did not.
- Positive background pictures did not reduce the negative reaction to sad images.
- Depression levels did not change this; the positive “context” simply wasn’t strong enough to overpower the negative focus.
The authors summarize this perfectly with a Russian proverb: “A spoonful of tar can spoil a barrel of honey, yet a spoonful of honey does little to cleanse a barrel of tar”.
This validates what many people living with depression already know: A small negative event can ruin a neutral day, but a small positive event rarely “fixes” a bad one.
3 Ways to Manage the “Spillover”
Understanding that your brain might be “coloring” neutral events with negative background noise is the first step to feeling better.
Based on the implications of this study, here are three expert-backed ways to cope.
1. Check Your “Tabs”
In the digital age, we are constantly bombarded by visual noise.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by a simple task, look at what else is open.
- Are there news alerts popping up?.
- Is the TV on in the background playing sad news?
- Action: Close the extra tabs. Remove the “irrelevant negative information” that might be spilling over into your work or personal life.
2. Practice “Concrete Thinking”
The researchers suggest that moving away from abstract feelings and toward “concrete thinking” may help reduce this bias.
- Instead of asking “How does this make me feel?”, ask “What exactly am I looking at?”
- Focus on the tangible details. “This is an email. It has three sentences. It is asking for a meeting time.”
- This directs focus to specific details rather than letting the background mood take over.
3. Label the Source
Recognize the “spillover” for what it is.
If you feel a sudden drop in mood during a neutral moment, pause.
- Ask yourself: “Is this task actually sad, or am I reacting to something else I just saw?”
- Recognizing that the emotion is coming from the context (the background) rather than the target (the task) can help break the cycle.
Next Steps: Protect Your Peace
This research confirms that your environment shapes your internal reality more than you realize. To protect your emotional energy this week:
- Audit your feed: Unfollow accounts that post shocking or tragic imagery without warning.
- Single-task: Try to do one thing at a time without “second screen” distractions.
- Validate yourself: If you feel down about something small, remember the “Spoonful of Tar.” It’s a biological mechanism, not a personal failure.
Citation
Amishav, T., & Mor, N. (2025). Peripheral information’s effect on emotional intensity depends on depression level. Emotion, 25(8), 1934–1943. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001538
