"Americans have been inundated with polarizing news for over two years, including manipulative and inaccurate news that proliferated on social media during the most recent presidential campaign," Andrew Challenger, vice president of global outplacement and executive coaching at the firm, said in a release.
"The most recent immigration stories, replete with images and audio of children crying for their parents, is especially distressing," he added.
"Even with a, by most accounts, healthy economy, it's unlikely all these messages, many of which are specifically designed to divide us, are not impacting to some extent the emotional well-being and, potentially, productivity of many workers," noted Challenger.
A 2014 study by the Université de Montréal found that females reading negative news produce higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol while a 2017 surveyfrom the American Psychological Association found 63 percent of Americans viewed the nation's future to be a very or somewhat significant source of stress.
