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Negative News Distorts Our Thinking

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Watch, read, or listen to the news, and you’re likely to come away believing that the world is rapidly descending into disaster and chaos, even though many aspects of life have improved dramatically over the last few decades. Exposure to consistent, sensationalized pessimism and negativity has become the norm for those keeping up with the news.
1. Negativity bias means that we can't turn negative news off.
2. Availability bias means that after we see negativity, we overestimate its significance.
3. Confirmation bias means that we will find evidence to support negativity.
How Negative News Distorts Our Thinking

Sometimes I think it best not to watch the news at all, eh... for health reasons. :D
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
Perhaps some people are not mentally strong enough to handle what they perceive, but luckily I am not one of them.

Consider yourself fortunate. I'm not ashamed to admit that viewing negativity brings me down. Perhaps I'm too susceptible to being influenced by my surroundings -it has it's advantages and it's disadvantages.
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
Watch, read, or listen to the news, and you’re likely to come away believing that the world is rapidly descending into disaster and chaos, even though many aspects of life have improved dramatically over the last few decades. Exposure to consistent, sensationalized pessimism and negativity has become the norm for those keeping up with the news.
1. Negativity bias means that we can't turn negative news off.
2. Availability bias means that after we see negativity, we overestimate its significance.
3. Confirmation bias means that we will find evidence to support negativity.
How Negative News Distorts Our Thinking

Sometimes I think it best not to watch the news at all, eh... for health reasons. :D
Very true

Perhaps some people are not mentally strong enough to handle what they perceive, but luckily I am not one of them.
Then why your quote below all your messages?
As an atheist, I am angry that we live in a society in which the plain truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population. ~ Sam Harris

This does not anger me. Perhaps "being mentally strong" is not the only key (or the quote might be random of course)

Consider yourself fortunate. I'm not ashamed to admit that viewing negativity brings me down. Perhaps I'm too susceptible to being influenced by my surroundings -it has it's advantages and it's disadvantages.
The more compassion and empathy you feel the better. Means the heart is open, which is needed to grow spiritually
 
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Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Reminds me of the couple people I've met who would use such an article to justify their foolish "information filters" and basically being scared of and reluctant to view certain information and/or sources.
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
Reminds me of the couple people I've met who would use such an article to justify their foolish "information filters" and basically being scared of and reluctant to view certain information and/or sources.

You're a brave soul, Shadow.

I'm the type who literally turns away at the first sight of blood. I panic at the thought of having to have surgery one day. And with news, I prefer it to be the calm, relaxing nightly news and never the local news.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
You're a brave soul, Shadow.

I'm the type who literally turns away at the first sight of blood. I panic at the thought of having to have surgery one day. And with news, I prefer it to be the calm, relaxing nightly news and never the local news.
I guess it's in taking in enough information to know that generally speaking, the news is reporting more crime and violence than ever before, and that is true their reporting of it has went up, but overall those things have went down. I've heard bad sources and misleading information should be avoided because we might confuse it for real news or add it to the task event when we recall it, which can happen, but if you ask 10 people who saw the same event you'd get at least several versions of the story with possible massive discrepancies happening in different versions. They aren't really lying in the traditional sense, but their recall is faulty.
 
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