Protection From News Infections

The following is a quote from an article I wrote called, The Danger Of Keeping Up With The News. Now I'm quoting myself! What is the world coming to? But I wanted to isolate this point because Jacob Weisberg says very simply and clearly why most of what you get from any newsmedia will be unrealistically biased toward negativity. Keep this in mind when you watch or read or listen to news. It will protect you somewhat from a negativity infection. Here's the quote:

"In a brilliant article called The Rout of Doubt, Jacob Weisberg criticized the pessimists in the media and pointed out that there is a 'built-in media bias toward pessimism.' Defeatism gets better ratings than confidence. The cards are stacked in favor of pessimism. As Weisberg points out, if a pessimistic commentator later turns to be right, he looks great. If things turn out better than the commentator predicted, he only looks cautious. Looking cautious is not a bad thing for a commentator. On the other hand, if he speaks positively and confidently and turns out to be wrong, he looks naive, foolish, and unsophisticated. And it is much better for a commentator to look careful than to look naive. The result is an automatic pessimistic stance on everything. It's the safest thing to do."

Learn what you can do to protect yourself from the four negative biases: The Three Ways To Protect Yourself From Pessimism Infections.