I heard the song, Good News Sold, by Jordan Davis, as I was playing in the yard with my two daughters, and it got me thinking about the news and what we all hear broadcast to us daily. If you turn on your TV, social media or radio I can almost guarantee you’ll hear some form of bad news within minutes, if not seconds. Why is this? Why does everything you watch, hear, or read seem so negatively slanted? Is the world really that much worse of a place than it used to be? I would argue that it’s not, but rather that the speed at which we get information and the type of information we get has changed.
I think John Mark Comer may be on to something in his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, when he says, “At the risk of coming off angsty and political, remember, ‘freedom of the press’ is a myth. Yes, the press is free from Washinton, DC’s oversight, which I’m all for. But they are still in slavery to the bottom line. Journalism is a for-profit business – this is capitalism, friends, no matter how far left or right the journalist may sound. And the reality is, for reasons both neurobiological and theological, bad news sells.”
Understand the reason negative news is everywhere.
This is a great thing to keep in mind when watching or reading the news that at the end of the day: the news station or publication is a business to make money. The main source of revenue for a news station or publication is advertisements. And let’s follow the money one step further. They can charge companies wanting to advertise with them more, based on the number of viewers and readers they have. So, their goal is to drive revenue through advertisements, which happens with more viewers.
Our brains pay attention to negativity.
I read a news article called “The Science Behind Why We Can’t Look Away From Tragedy” from NBC News and it discussed a study published by the American Psychological Association which found that we react to and learn more from our negative experiences than we do positive ones. “Humans are prone to negative bias and negative potency,” explains psychologist Dr. Renee Carr.
Negative bias is the term that describes people’s tendency to automatically give more attention to a negative event than a positive one.
Our brains are wired to pay more attention to negativity because it evokes fear and risk. It sparks our fight or flight and produces a reaction. The news companies know this and prey on it. They feed stories that produce fear and threat because they know the brain science that will keep the viewers’ attention the longest.
When you watch the news, the stories and events they talk about did happen, but no doubt the only ones you’ll hear are a handpicked line up of negatively slanted and strong, emotion producing stories that will help generate the most advertising dollars for the news outlet.
In his book, The Psychology of Money, author Morgan Housel states, “Tell someone that everything will be okay and they’re likely to either shrug you off or offer a skeptical eye. Tell someone they’re in danger and you have their undivided attention.”
One of the best ways to combat this is to control what you can control. Here are a few examples:
Cut back on your news intake. If you have the news on in the background as white noise listen to your favorite music instead or decide to watch a new show instead of the news.
Change your notifications on your phone. Do you really need real-time news notifications? Honestly, if Putin does something newsworthy do you need to know right then; are you going to text him and tell him to cut it out?
Purposely look for positivity. Look for some news outlets that provide positive and uplifting stories. There are national companies that post positive stories. You can also search for social media pages that are local to your community that share events, inspiring stories, or fun initiatives in your area.
The world can undoubtedly be a scary place, but there are a lot of great things happening in the world today. It just isn’t profitable to tell the masses about the positive things. Whether it’s financial, political, or social, don’t let the seduction of pessimism suck you into a place of despair and hopelessness.
I’ll leave you with one more quote from Mr. Housel, “When you realize how much progress humans can make during a lifetime in everything from economic growth to medical breakthroughs to stock market gains to social equality, you would think optimism would gain more attention than pessimism. And yet.”
Would you like to discuss your financial plan with a team that favors positivity over pessimism? Schedule a conversation.
