About this episode

Psychologist Alison Ledgerwood discusses the negativity bias and how it affects our perception of experiences.

Why does one bad experience have the power to overshadow an otherwise good day? Psychologist Alison Ledgerwood explores the negativity bias, the deeply human tendency to hold on to what went wrong and overlook what went right. She explains why our minds are drawn to losses and threats, and what it takes to rebalance our attention. Then, on Your Questions Answered, psychologist David Pizarro returns to respond to your comments about the surprising role of disgust in shaping our lives.

People in this episode

Hosts: Shankar Vedantam, Hidden Brain

Guests: Alison Ledgerwood, David Pizarro

Topics covered

• negativity bias
• psychology
• human behavior
• attention
• losses and threats

Keywords

• negativity bias
• psychology
• human behavior
• attention
• loss
• threat
• disgust

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