In this
article Marc Trussler and Stuart Soroka from McGill University in Canada, set
up an experiment to discover which type of news articles test subjects
preferred to read. During the experiment they discovered that most people
gravitated towards negative and gloomy stories. “Participants often chose
stories with a negative tone – corruption, set-backs, hypocrisy and so on –
rather than neutral or positive stories.” For the most part people do not
experience the type of events they see or read on the news and is a subject of
great appeal. “The researchers present their experiment as solid evidence of a
so called "negativity bias", psychologists' term for our collective
hunger to hear, and remember bad news.” In reading this article I learned some
of the reasons why we tend to seek out extremes when it comes to news. It may
be that there is a darker sense of our humanity that seeks out these types of
stories, or that we are programmed to be vigilant to potential threats.
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