Page 101 - Fear Unmasked Flipbook

T HE R O O T O f T HE P R O B l E m

to hear and remember bad news. Most, if not all,
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people are addicted to negative or fearful information.
The article reports that, “In lab experiments, flash the
word ‘cancer,’ ‘bomb,’ or ‘war’ up at someone and they
can hit a button in response quicker than if that word
is ‘baby,’ ‘smile,’ or ‘fun’ (despite these pleasant words
being slightly more common). We are also able to
recognize negative words faster than positive words,

and even tell that a word is going to be unpleasant
before we can tell exactly what the word is going to
be.” It doesn’t matter who you are, most people are
wired for the negative.
Negativity being the default for most people
combined with the truth that most people, according
to Forbes, don’t change, it is not surprising that, as

a culture, we allow this negative bend of the media
to perpetuate. Most people that I talk to recognize
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their need to get off social media, put down the
burger, exercise a little, work harder, etc. But they
don’t actually make the changes. According to
Forbes, one of the reasons for this is because people
don’t know how to sustain motivation. While the
average American might try every once and a while
to stay away from negative news, if they don’t have

that strong internal motivation, then they will go
right back to it. Just like water flowing downhill,
people like to take the path of least resistance.

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