Why Doesn't Anybody Use The Human Bias Toward Negativity?


We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde / who comes on at five

She can tell you 'bout the plane crash / with a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die \ Give us dirty laundry. (Don Henley)

It is generally interesting when people die and has been since before history began. There is no need to apologize for being fascinated by the many interweaving patterns of circumstance leading to our common, singular end.

To Mr. Henley’s chagrin, it’s also potentially interesting when a famous musician hires underage girls for a wild party to mark the acrimonious demise of his mega-band and one of those girls suffers a drug overdose in his house (https://archive.ph/Gk6sp). And while it may be true that “some things are nobody’s fuckin’ business” (https://lnkd.in/eBkziepq), the management would kindly remind all guests that the sign on the door to Celebrity clearly states: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

But he isn’t really angry about interest. He’s angry about *mere* interest in response to others’ suffering; interest without empathy, driven by greed and titillated schadenfreude. He’s angry about prurience. (OED: exhibiting or characterized by excessive or inappropriate desire or interest; overly curious. From Latin prūrīre: to itch, to long, to be sexually excited; SNL: https://lnkd.in/e2QfeuG7).

For better and worse, humans have a negativity bias: “the propensity to attend to, learn from, and use negative information far more than positive information.” (https://lnkd.in/ezs7CZSx) Furthermore, negative emotions and events are encoded and recalled in more accurate sensory detail than positive ones. (https://lnkd.in/eJf5ZKCN) Negativity is a major enhancer of interestingness, along with Incongruity, Significance, Authenticity and Detail. It doesn’t need to be there, but adding it will likely make the results more interesting.

Our sexy negativity itch is easily exploited by media, politicians, advertisers, gossips and others who live by grabbing attention. (As it happens, System1 reports that the two pleasurable emotions that generate the most business effects are amusement and schadenfreude (https://lnkd.in/ezese4fk)). But generating interest is more than just grabbing attention. Attention without the desire to process the content is spectacle, which is closer to what Henley is describing. “It’s spectacle when people die” would be more accurate and preserve the meter, but sounds clunky. Oh, well.

Keep in mind that negativity isn’t always exploitative and can serve positive goals. In fact, I’ll end with one example: Learn to play “Dirty Laundry”. It’s actually quite easy. (https://lnkd.in/eQ4sHKrE) Everyone will recognize the jaunty yet dyspeptic slog of a riff and be impressed. And it will bring the family together because if there’s one thing we can all agree on this holiday season, it’s that we all hate the media.

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