Why we fail to keep up with the Good Stuff ...
Enquiry
Why Do We Fail to Keep Up With the Good Stuff?
By W. Owen Thornton
In the days to come I'm going to be writing an essay on why do we fail to keep up with the good stuff? or, conversely, why do we insist on keeping on with the bad stuff? Here's what I mean. The following comes from current readings.
Placing one negative election advertisement in one, 1/2 hour program diminishes the average person's desire to vote by 2.3% (Conversly a positve advertisment raises the willingness to vote by the same amount -- a difference closing in on 5%!) The indifference to voting is even more staggering when you poll those already far removed from politics. For those already disinterested in politics, people who saw one, 1/2 hour television program with one negative political advertisement were 11% less likely to vote.
So why would you run an attack ad when you demotivate the populace to vote at all?
In the U.S. from 1960 to 1996, the percentage of the vote decreased from 62.5% to 50%. Something is definitely NOT working!
So, negative input creates a negative response inside of us even when we don't know what we're being tested for. Why do we continue to watch television news when it is over 90% bad news? Worse, why is it we won't watch/read good news? I remember years ago I sold an article about whether or not people could live their dream life. I interviewed the mayor, and a couple of local television personalities. I found the answer was, "Yes!" The editor killed the story. He didn't think I would find a happy answer. He killed it because no one wanted to read a good-news story. He told me newspeople are ambulance chasers chasing after negative stories, because that's what peopel want to read.
But doesn't the success of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series defy this negativity theory? or can good stuff, happy stuff, only work in small doses in comparison to a host of negative stuff. Why did we dream of going to the stars, but when it became routine we stopped caring ... until Apollo 13 nearly blew up! -- another negative news story. I'm curious about your thoughts on this.
Owen
Why Do We Fail to Keep Up With the Good Stuff?
By W. Owen Thornton
In the days to come I'm going to be writing an essay on why do we fail to keep up with the good stuff? or, conversely, why do we insist on keeping on with the bad stuff? Here's what I mean. The following comes from current readings.
Placing one negative election advertisement in one, 1/2 hour program diminishes the average person's desire to vote by 2.3% (Conversly a positve advertisment raises the willingness to vote by the same amount -- a difference closing in on 5%!) The indifference to voting is even more staggering when you poll those already far removed from politics. For those already disinterested in politics, people who saw one, 1/2 hour television program with one negative political advertisement were 11% less likely to vote.
So why would you run an attack ad when you demotivate the populace to vote at all?
In the U.S. from 1960 to 1996, the percentage of the vote decreased from 62.5% to 50%. Something is definitely NOT working!
So, negative input creates a negative response inside of us even when we don't know what we're being tested for. Why do we continue to watch television news when it is over 90% bad news? Worse, why is it we won't watch/read good news? I remember years ago I sold an article about whether or not people could live their dream life. I interviewed the mayor, and a couple of local television personalities. I found the answer was, "Yes!" The editor killed the story. He didn't think I would find a happy answer. He killed it because no one wanted to read a good-news story. He told me newspeople are ambulance chasers chasing after negative stories, because that's what peopel want to read.
But doesn't the success of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series defy this negativity theory? or can good stuff, happy stuff, only work in small doses in comparison to a host of negative stuff. Why did we dream of going to the stars, but when it became routine we stopped caring ... until Apollo 13 nearly blew up! -- another negative news story. I'm curious about your thoughts on this.
Owen
I think there are two reasons people lke bad news and negativity in general. First, many are addicted to negativity just as they are to anything else. They are used to the chemicals that their body produces when they think negative thoughts, and so they crave more of those chemicals. Secondly, I think sometimes people enjoy hearing bad news stories so they can think "wow, I'm better than that" or "too bad for so-and-so" or "what a poor sucker" (you get the idea). It makes them feel better about themselves.
It is very easy to counteract negativity, once you have a basic awareness of your thoughts. We can all choose to think a new thought at any time - we are not slaves to our thoughts.
That's all from me. Thought you might enjoy my post today entitled "Promoting Kindness Towards Computers."
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