XVICognitive Bias

Negativity Bias

Your bias is Negativity. Negative information has stronger impact than positive information.

Why This Bias Happens

Threat detection had high survival value. So bad news receives priority processing and lasts longer in memory.

Example 1

Seneca counsels Lucilius not to rehearse possible disasters all day. Stoic training notices danger without surrendering to it.

Example 2

Baumeister and colleagues summarized evidence that “bad is stronger than good” across cognition and social judgment.

Further Reading

Back to list