What is it?
The human brain exhibits what psychologists call a negativity bias, i.e., people dread loss more than they anticipate gains or criticism stings more than praise elevates. Our tendency for paying attention to negative rather than positive information is evolutionary that came down to us from our ancestors. We inherited the genes that predispose us to give special attention to those negative aspects of our environment that could be harmful to us. These negative emotions rouse the amygdala; almond shaped part of brain, that uses two third of its neurons to look for bad news. To better understand this phenomenon, let’s assume ourselves as the ancient cave man, and is hunting for food. There are berry bushes ahead, but from those very berry bushes we also hear suspicious rushing sounds. Do we (a) leave the berries, come back to the safety of our cave and sleep empty stomach or (b) take the berries despite the risk. In most cases the survival....
