Comment by tomasphan
4 days ago
We self filter for negative responses because negative content is functionally interactive whereas positive content is functionally complete. Agreement is silent, users keep scrolling if they agree. Disagreement demands expression. Just a theory I don’t have data to back this up.
The site design also seems to discourage making a simple positive comment. Just click the up vote button.
Not only that, but a positive comment that adds nothing is frowned upon ("that's what the upvote button is for!") which negatively selects such comments.
Thus comments are mostly neutral, objective facts that add upon the original comment, or negative comments of disagreement.
I learn a lot more from informative posts that add something than critical posts that tear something down, largely because the critical posts are basic and repetitive while the informative ones are often novel and offer insider/professional observations.
I definitely think you're onto something. Also, we're inherently psychologically biased toward negative content because all the monkeys who ignored the scary things died.
We're naturally wired to engage with negative content - and that's a must-use recipe for success in an economy that increasingly relies on grabbing your attention.
It's no wonder that depression and anxiety rates are higher than ever, despite our world being much, much safer than it was 100-200 years ago.
Even being aware of this doesn't help all that much.
Trump did a new, unbelievably dumb thing that's going to ruin people's lives? Instant click from me.
Malaria rates down 20% over the past 10 years in the DRC?* I'm still scrolling.
*Fake example, but you get the gist.
You're right! Oh, wait....