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A senior trainer for a method of dealing with trauma once said he didn't think the human nervous system has evolved to be able to deal with the quantity of bad

by lcuff 4y ago

A senior trainer for a method of dealing with trauma once said he didn't think the human nervous system has evolved to be able to deal with the quantity of bad news that is pushed at us. Thinking about it, evolutionarily we probably dealt with bad news from within a 20 or 40 mile radius (two day's walk...). We are inherently disposed to pay attention to bad news (the creature that ate or mauled a guy in the next village may come this way). Put stronger, it's an evolutionary advantage to pay attention to bad news. But here in 2022, the bad news from thousands of miles away is 99% irrelevant to my life or survival, but my eyeballs get pulled in, and my nervous system gets overwhelmed unless I make a conscious choice to pull away, which I personally do.

TechBro8615 4y ago
> We are inherently disposed to pay attention to bad news Most of us, sure, but not all of us. Some people don’t care about bad news. You might argue that’s not who we want to select for, but in a noisy information environment, apathy is a fitness function.
whimsicalism 4y ago
A senior commentator at Hacker News (me) does not believe that false beliefs are more prevalent today than in the past.
epolanski 4y ago
> the bad news from thousands of miles away is 99% irrelevant to my life or survival You reminded me of something. Before the latest US elections me, an Italian, found myself in few discussions about Trump, Biden at dinners with friends and family. I then realized I've never found myself in a discussion about elections of our city's mayor or province governor which were infinitely more relevant to my daily life. Some of my friends didn't even knew who the candidates were or the ideas they had. Quite telling.
- TMWNN 4y ago
  It is no exaggeration to say that the average Canadian knows more about US politics and how the US government works than he does about his own country's equivalents. (Or "thinks they know", at least. The same average Canadian thinks, thanks to an avalanche of misleading "news", that "the Supreme Court[1] banned abortion throughout the US". Since the Supreme Court of Canada has never found a Charter right to abortion, the repeal of Roe v. Wade means that federally speaking abortion has the exact same standing in both countries: No law prohibits it.) [1] No "US" qualifier needed, which is itself telling

by lcuff 4y ago

TechBro8615 4y ago

> We are inherently disposed to pay attention to bad news Most of us, sure, but not all of us. Some people don’t care about bad news. You might argue that’s not who we want to select for, but in a noisy information environment, apathy is a fitness function.

whimsicalism 4y ago

A senior commentator at Hacker News (me) does not believe that false beliefs are more prevalent today than in the past.

epolanski 4y ago

> the bad news from thousands of miles away is 99% irrelevant to my life or survival You reminded me of something. Before the latest US elections me, an Italian, found myself in few discussions about Trump, Biden at dinners with friends and family. I then realized I've never found myself in a discussion about elections of our city's mayor or province governor which were infinitely more relevant to my daily life. Some of my friends didn't even knew who the candidates were or the ideas they had. Quite telling.

TMWNN 4y ago
It is no exaggeration to say that the average Canadian knows more about US politics and how the US government works than he does about his own country's equivalents. (Or "thinks they know", at least. The same average Canadian thinks, thanks to an avalanche of misleading "news", that "the Supreme Court[1] banned abortion throughout the US". Since the Supreme Court of Canada has never found a Charter right to abortion, the repeal of Roe v. Wade means that federally speaking abortion has the exact same standing in both countries: No law prohibits it.) [1] No "US" qualifier needed, which is itself telling