What the Research Says

Differences in negativity bias have also been linked to political ideology. Some research suggests that conservatives may have stronger psychological responses to negative information than liberals. Some evidence, for example, has found that people who consider themselves politically conservative...

As humans, we tend to:

• Remember traumatic experiences better than positive ones.
• Recall insults better than praise.
• React more strongly to negative stimuli.
• Think about negative things more frequently than positive ones.
• Respond more strongly to negative...

Research suggests that this negativity bias starts to emerge in infancy. Very young infants tend to pay greater attention to positive facial expression and tone of voice, but this begins to shift as they near one year of age.5

Brain studies indicate that around this time, babies begin to e...

Psychological research suggests that the negative bias influences motivation to complete a task. People have less motivation when an incentive is framed as a means to gain something than when the same incentive will help them avoid the loss of something.2 

This can play a rol...

Additionally, studies have shown that negative news is more likely to be perceived as truthful. Since negative information draws greater attention, it also may be seen as having greater validity. This mi...

This bias toward the negative leads you to pay much more attention to the bad things that happen, making them seem much more important than they really are.

The negative bias can have a variety of real-world effects on how people think and act. Do any of these situations and events seem familiar?

• You received a performance review at work that was quite positive overall and noted your strong performance and achievements. A ...

The negativity bias is our tendency not only to register negative stimuli more readily but also to dwell on these events. Also known as positive-negative asymmetry, this negativity bias means that we feel the sting of a rebuke more powerfully than we feel the joy of praise.

This psycho...

Our tendency to pay more attention to bad things and overlook good things is likely a result of evolution. Earlier in human history, paying attention to bad, dangerous, and negative threats in the world was literally a matter of life and death. Those who were more attuned to danger and who paid m...