Understanding Media and Negativity Bias

What is one reason the media often focuses on negative news stories?

• Negative news stories are more factual.

• Positive news stories are less interesting.

• Negative news stories are more likely to sell papers.

• Negative news stories are easier to write.

What is negativity bias?

• The tendency to avoid negative news.

• The tendency to ignore negative events.

• The tendency to remember positive events more vividly.

• The tendency for negative events to have a greater impact on us than positive ones.

What is one reason people might pay more attention to negative headlines?

• Negative headlines are more likely to be ignored.

• Negative headlines help people avoid danger.

• Negative headlines are more common.

• Negative headlines are easier to understand.

Why might people describe negative events with more complex language?

• Negative events are processed more thoroughly by the brain.

• Negative events are less impactful.

• Negative events require less explanation.

• Negative events are less interesting.

How does positivity bias differ from negativity bias?

• Positivity bias makes us focus only on negative news.

• Positivity bias causes us to ignore all news.

• Positivity bias leads us to form mostly positive theories about reality.

• Positivity bias leads us to expect negative outcomes.

How does the concept of positive-negative asymmetry affect our perception?

• It makes us ignore all negative events.

• It causes us to expect mostly negative outcomes.

• It leads us to assume things will be mostly good but focus more on bad things.

• It results in equal attention to positive and negative events.

Why might social media users prefer sharing positive content?

• Positive content is less engaging.

• Sharing positive content helps users appear more likable.

• Negative content is banned on social media.

• Positive content is more likely to be ignored.

What did the 2010 New York Times analysis reveal about article sharing?

• The length of an article determines its shareability.

• Positive articles are more likely to go viral.

• Articles with neutral content are shared the most.

• Negative articles are shared more than positive ones.

What is the role of arousal in content sharing on social media?

• Arousal only affects negative content.

• Arousal influences the decision to share content more than its positivity or negativity.

• High arousal content is less likely to be shared.

• Arousal has no impact on content sharing.

What is one potential benefit of negativity bias according to researchers?

• It reduces our awareness of positive events.

• It helps us ignore potential threats.

• It keeps us informed about potential dangers.

• It makes us more optimistic.