Negativity Bias

The tendency for negative events to dominate attention out of proportion to their frequency. In News in the Age of Abundance, Perell argues that because creation is slow and destruction is fast, rare negative events fill headlines while steady gains (falling poverty, better health) go unreported — distorting our worldview (Paradox of Abundance).

Context: “Negativity bias” is a well-documented psychological finding that negative information tends to have a greater effect on attention, memory, and decision-making than equivalently intense positive information.

Where this appears

• News in the Age of Abundance — why news skews dark and distorts our sense of the world.