The Negative Bias

The tendency to automatically give more weightage, attention and meaning to the negative aspects of any event or situation is called Negative Bias.

A 2008 study by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that we tend to react towards or be curious about the negative experiences and stories around us, considerably more than the positive ones.

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Why are we fascinated with true crime stories?

bigthink.com

TOPICS IN THIS IDEA

Self Improvement

The medications that change who we are

"Patient Five" was in his late 50s when a trip to the doctors changed his life. He had diabetes, and he had signed up for a study to see if taking a "statin" - a kind of cholesterol-lowering drug - might help. So far, so normal.

bbc.com

Effects of ordinary medication

There’s emerging evidence that ordinary medications - from paracetamol to antihistamines, statins, asthma medications, and antidepressants - can change our brains. They can make us impulsive...

The crisis of over-medication

The US buys an equivalent of 298 paracetamol tablets per person every year.
The average American consumes $1,200 worth of prescription medications over the same period.
In the UK, one in 10 people over the age of 65 takes eight medications every week.

Statins and personality changes

People with lower cholesterol levels are more likely to die violent deaths.
If you put primates on a low-cholesterol diet, they become more aggressive. Lowering animals’ cholesterol seems to affect their levels of serotonin. Even fruit flies start fighting if you interfere with their serotonin levels.
Studies have linked serotonin levels in people to violence, impulsivity, suicide, and murder.
In a randomized controlled trial, statins were found to increase aggression in post-menopausal women though, oddly, not in men. Giving statins to Nile tilapia made them more confrontational and altered the levels of serotonin in their brains.

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Cory Sinclair

@corys_clair

Why Do We Like Watching Scary Films?

Why do we love to watch scary horror films? Some psychologists claim people go to horror films because they want to be frightened or they wouldn't do it twice. You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you. But what else does the literature tell us about the psychology of horror movies?

psychologytoday.com

Primary factors that make horror films alluring

Tension - Generated by suspense, mystery, terror, shock and gore.
Relevance - The horror film may relate to personal relevance, cultural meaningfulness, the fea...

Viewing motivators for horror movies

Gore watchers typically have low empathy, high sensation seeking, and a strong identification with the killer.
Thrill watchers typically have both high empathy and sensation seeking;they identify themselves more with the victims and like the suspense of the film.
Independent watchers typically have a high empathy for the victim along with a high positive effect for overcoming fear.
Problem watchers typically have high empathy for the victim but are characterized by negative effect (particularly a sense of helplessness).

Theories on why we love to watch horror films

Dr. Carl Jung believed horror films “tapped into primordial archetypes buried deep in our collective subconscious – images like shadow and mother play important role in the horror genre”.
Horror films are watched as a way of purging negative emotions and/or as a way to relieve pent-up aggression.
Horror movies are enjoyed because the people on screen getting killed deserve it.
Cultural historian David Skal has argued that horror films simply reflect our societal fears.

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