ATAR Notes: Forum
General Discussion => General Discussion Boards => News and Politics => Topic started by: JR_StudyEd on December 11, 2019, 12:09:53 pm
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I know that many distressing events happen in this world on a near-constant basis, but I also know that much good is happening in the world as well; it just doesn't seem to be reported nearly as often as the morbid and scary stuff.
Does negative news make more money than positive news? I obviously don't want ALL news to be positive (that would be taking it too far, and would be blatantly biased against the important issues that have to be addressed, although overwhelmingly negative), I just want to know why there doesn't seem to be at least a 50-50 balance of 'good' news and 'bad' news reports?
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The main things I can think of are:
- outrage generating more clicks, comments etc. than positive news (& thus earning more ad money)
- urgent news that requires immediate action being more likely to be negative (& thus there's more motivation to share negative stories)
- we need to remember negative things more strongly than positive things
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The main things I can think of are:
- outrage generating more clicks, comments etc. than positive news (& thus earning more ad money)
- urgent news that requires immediate action being more likely to be negative (& thus there's more motivation to share negative stories)
- we need to remember negative things more strongly than positive things
Ah, I see. About your third point, is that a product of human evolution? Is it just human nature for the news and media to be mostly negative because we are likely to recall more of what they report?
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Ah, I see. About your third point, is that a product of human evolution? Is it just human nature for the news and media to be mostly negative because we are likely to recall more of what they report?
That was meant to say 'tend to' rather than 'need to' but yeah. The leading opinion (afaik) is that from a survival standpoint it was more important to remember details related to fear-inducing events than positive ones and that's lead to our brains operating they way they do in that respect.
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Ah, I see. About your third point, is that a product of human evolution? Is it just human nature for the news and media to be mostly negative because we are likely to recall more of what they report?
Actually I have seen many credible studies and read articles that state that humans actually tend to remember negative things more than positive ones, and I think it is a product of evolution iirc.
It would make sense. Generally negative things = danger. Danger = threat to survival, and survival is the instinct everyone is born with.
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There's actually a really well-written article on The Guardian that I read last year outlining this very topic :) Thought it'd be worth sharing it ;D
The media exaggerates negative news. This distortion has consequences