223. Negativity Bias: Cockroaches and Cherries, a Behavioral Economics Foundations Episode

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today we are digging in on negativity bias, which is featured in chapter 9 of my book,</span> <a href="https://amzn.to/3m2PA3a"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You</span></em></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. I also talked about this when Adam Hansen was on the show back in episode 176 and have planned to give it a dedicated episode for a long time, yet it has continued to hang out waiting for its moment in the sunshine – until today! It’s funny, because I think it really says something about my personality that optimism bias was episode 34 and we aren’t getting to negativity bias until nearly 200 weeks later.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m ok with that, and, I’m so glad that this is finally becoming an episode because it really is a fascinating concept and super important for everyone in life and business. As with all the biases and heuristics you hear about on this show, I’m confident this will be one of those things that really changes your whole life and perspective once you realize it is there and impacting you. It’s shocking how rampant this can be running in our lives and businesses. Today we will cover the four aspects of negativity bias (plus a “bonus” one) as well as ways to think about this in your life and work.</span></p> <h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Show Notes:</span></h3> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[00:41] Today we are digging in on negativity bias, which is featured in chapter 9 of my book,</span> <a href="https://amzn.to/3m2PA3a"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You</span></em></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[03:13] In its most basic form, negativity bias is our tendency to put more emphasis on negative information than positive.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[03:57] Negativity bias, putting more weight on the bad than the good. Being on high alert and paying a