Negativity Instinct hinders thinking by emphasizing bad news

from Factfulness:

Factfulness is … recognizing when we get negative news, and remembering that information about bad events is much more likely to reach us. When things are getting better we often don’t hear about them. This gives us a systematically too-negative impression of the world around us, which is very stressful.

To control the negativity instinct, expect bad news.

• Better and bad. Practice distinguishing between a level (e.g., bad) and a direction of change (e.g., better). Convince yourself that things can be both better and bad.

• Good news is not news. Good news is almost never reported. So news is almost always bad. When you see bad news, ask whether equally positive news would have reached you.

• Gradual improvement is not news. When a trend is gradually improving, with periodic dips, you are more likely to notice the dips than the overall improvement.

• More news does not equal more suffering. More bad news is sometimes due to better surveillance of suffering, not a worsening world.

• Beware of rosy pasts. People often glorify their early experiences, and nations often glorify their histories.

#bias

See also:

• Availability Heuristic overestimates likelihood of events

Others in this series:

1. Gap Instinct hinders thinking by ignoring the middle majority
2. Negativity Instinct hinders thinking by emphasizing bad news
3. Straight Line Instinct hinders thinking by assuming trends will continue
4. Fear Instinct hinders thinking by confusing risk with fear
5. Size Instinct hinders thinking by considering a number without context
6. Generalization Instinct hinders thinking by using misleading categories
7. Destiny Instinct hinders thinking by forgetting that small changes add up
8. Single Perspective Instinct hinders thinking by having only a hammer
9. Blame Instinct hinders thinking by pointing fingers
10. Urgency Instinct hinders thinking by exaggerating a decision's urgency