Negativity bias[0] Bad stuff stands out more than good stuff for reasons baked in by natural selection. It doesn't mean their aren't genuienly bad things but

Negativity bias[0] Bad stuff stands out more than good stuff for reasons baked in by natural selection. It doesn't mean their aren't genuienly bad things but we tend to weight them more heavily than we need to. If I make a suggestion in a meeting and 9 people say it's a good idea and one person says it's a terrible idea my tendency will be to focus on the 1 negative reaction. That doesn't mean you want to ignore negative stuff (maybe that negative reaction is correct). I just try to keep negativity bias in mind and ask myself if something is really as bad as it seems or if it might be playing a role. The place this is most obvious to me is in news and social networks. I think negativity bias is a large part of why depressing or hopeless headlines spread much more effectively than positive ones. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias