Roxane Cohen Silver
Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science UC Irvine
- Irvine CA
Roxane Cohen Silver studies stress, traumatic events, coping, disasters, health psychology and social psychology.
Media
Social
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Frank Ochberg Award for Media and Trauma Study
2014
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Daniel Stokols Award for Interdisciplinary Research
2015
School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine
Social Responsibility Award
2016
Western Psychological Association
Application of Personality and Social Psychology Senior Career Contribution Award
2019
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Robert S. Laufer Ph.D. Memorial Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement
2018
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Education
Northwestern University
PhD
Social Psychology
1982
Northwestern University
BA
Psychology
1976
Awarded with Highest Distinction and Honors
Affiliations
- American Psychological Association
- Association for Psychological Science
- International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
- Society of Experimental Social Psychology
- Society for Health Psychology
- Society for Personality and Social Psychology
- Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Links
Media Appearances
Media megaphone key in identifying suspected killer
CNN online
2025-09-12
We want to bring in Roxane Cohen Silver, who is a Distinguished Professor of psychology, public health and medicine at the University of California, Irvine … Millions of people have watched the horrible video of Charlie Kirk being shot. What does it do to us, to our brains, when we keep watching stuff like this over and over again? “My colleagues and I have conducted research over the last twenty/thirty years that suggests that there is no psychological benefit to exposure to graphic, gruesome images/videos and … we see very strong evidence that watching these kinds of graphic images can be psychologically damaging and, in fact, can have physiological and physical health consequences over time,” says Silver.
The surprising way doomscrolling rewires your brain
National Geographic online
2025-09-11
The first time Roxane Cohen Silver noticed the media may be psychologically damaging was in 1999. … But it wasn’t until the 9/11 attacks that Silver, a professor of psychology, medicine, and public health at the University of California, Irvine, began to understand just how harmful the media could be. … Humans are wired to pay attention to threats, says E. Alison Holman, a UC Irvine health psychologist who has collaborated with Silver for years.
Why more and more people are tuning the news out: ‘Now I don’t have that anxiety’
The Guardian online
2025-09-01
For decades, Roxane Cohen Silver has examined the consequences of consuming media about crises …. “With greater exposure, we see greater distress in people’s reports of their mental health. Greater anxiety, greater depression, greater post traumatic stress symptoms, acute stress symptoms,” said Silver, professor of psychology, medicine and public health at the University of California, Irvine.
What Collective Trauma Feels Like
Psychology Today online
2025-03-05
Roxane Cohen Silver of the University of California, Irvine, testified about the compounding crises of 2020 before the U.S. House of Representatives, stating, “Together, the combination of medical, economic, racial and climate-based catastrophes highlights the need for attention to the meaning and implications of cumulative, compounding trauma exposure.”
Struggling with your mental health after surviving a disaster? Here’s how to look after yourself
Associated Press online
2025-02-04
For some, direct exposure to a collective disaster like the California wildfires can be associated with mental health consequences, including anxiety, difficulty sleeping, hypervigilance, depression and, potentially, post-traumatic stress disorder, said Roxane Cohen Silver, a professor of psychological science at University of California, Irvine. “Social support is crucial in a time like this,” she said, adding that over time, people may wish to seek professional help.
Event Appearances
Psychological Science and COVID-19, Interview with Roxane Cohen Silver
Association for Psychological Science
2020-04-03
Social isolation, mental health, and COVID-19: A media briefing
SciLine, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2020-03-30
Using the psychological science of crisis leadership and communications to navigate the Coronavirus: A webinar for public officials
American Psychological Association
2020-03-20
Articles
When are assumptions shaken? A prospective, longitudinal investigation of negative life events and worldviews in a national sample
Journal of Research in PersonalityMichael J Poulin, Roxane Cohen Silver
2019
Theorists maintain that negative life events (NLE) can alter worldviews, but evidence for this idea has been lacking. We present a model that raises three questions: (1) Do different types of NLE engender different types of worldview change? (2) Do factors that facilitate positive reappraisals of NLE buffer against worldview change?
What Might Have Been: Near Miss Experiences and Adjustment to a Terrorist Attack
Social Psychological and Personality ScienceMichael J. Poulin, Roxane Cohen Silver
2019
Near miss experiences—narrowly avoiding a traumatic event—are associated with distress, despite signaling good fortune. For some, near miss experiences call to mind those who, unlike oneself, were directly affected by the event, leading to “survivor guilt” or distress over one’s comparative good fortune. Survivor guilt, in turn, may function as upward counterfactual thinking about others’ negative outcomes, leading to intrusive thoughts and post-traumatic stress.
Exposure to prior negative life events and responses to the Boston marathon bombings.
Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and PolicyGarfin, Dana Rose; Holman, E. Alison; Silver, Roxane Cohen
2020
Objective: The objective of the study was to explore how type and timing of prior negative life experiences (NLEs) may be linked to responses to subsequent collective trauma, such as a terrorist attack. Method: Using a longitudinal design, we examined relationships between prior NLEs and responses to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings (BMB).
Associations between exposure to childhood bullying and abuse and adulthood outcomes in a representative national U.S. sample
Child Abuse & NeglectJosiah A Sweeting, Dana Rose Garfin, E Alison Holman, Roxane Cohen Silver
2020
Negative childhood experiences are associated with poor health and psychosocial outcomes throughout one’s lifespan.
The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-2019) Outbreak: Amplification of Public Health Consequences by Media Exposure
Health PsychologyDana Rose Garfin, Roxane Cohen Silver, E. Alison Holman
2020
The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) has led to a serious outbreak of often severe respiratory disease, which originated in China and has quickly become a global pandemic, with far-reaching consequences that are unprecedented in the modern era. As public health officials seek to contain the virus and mitigate the deleterious effects on worldwide population health, a related threat has emerged: global media exposure to the crisis.
