Why Bad News Sells…
Bad news sells! Everyone is aware of it, bitches about it, but buys it anyway. The TV news is inundated by it, the Tabloids are filled cover to cover with it, it’s what makes headlines in the newspapers, negative Radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbo have huge followings because of it, and afternoon Tabloid Talk shows draw millions of watchers by displaying it. It makes you wonder why, why are people more drawn to bad news than good news.
What is the attraction to bad news? At first it appears like a case of the chicken or the egg, and which came first. The supply or the demand? Are we the consumers asking the providers of information for bad news or are we being fed the bad news with the understanding that humans have a bigger emotional response to negative information or pain, thereby we listen longer, we watch longer, and read farther. This gives the providers of bad news a more attentive, captive audience, for longer periods of time. This in turn gives them higher ratings and sells more papers or magazines, which in turn they use to sell more advertising which sells more products to us. The operative word here being sell, sell, sell.
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of the barrage of bad news, and have a plan to escape it. My plan is simply to tune it out, opt-out like Deepak Chopra likes to say, “choose not to participate.” It might seem naive, but if you really contemplate on the whole question of positive and negative thinking, you can make your own choice of what you would like to be surrounded by, I choose hope.
Let’s do a little research of our own and fill out the poll below. Let’s see what wins out positive or negative news. I have a feeling that given the choice people will choose positive news over negative…
Found an interesting story on a study that says that Happiness is Contagious.
