The TED AI Show How to stop doom scrolling – and have a better experience online with Jay Van Bavel (from ReThinking)
31 snips
Nov 26, 2024 Jay Van Bavel, a renowned psychology and neuroscience professor at NYU, sheds light on the reasons behind our doom scrolling habits. He discusses the psychological effects of negative news and the importance of uplifting narratives to combat negativity bias. Van Bavel also explores strategies to enhance social media experiences, emphasizing the need for ethical content sharing. Additionally, he highlights the significance of collective identity and the balance between authentic content creation and audience engagement, urging a shift towards positivity in our online interactions.
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Negativity in News
- News interwoven with social media creates an attention economy.
- This incentivizes negativity because it generates more clicks and ad revenue.
Evolutionary Basis of Negativity Bias
- Negativity bias is observed in children and primates.
- Fear responses to threats, like a snake, are easily learned and passed on.
Upworthy's Headline Experiment
- Upworthy A/B tested headlines, trying different versions to see what performed best.
- Negative headlines consistently outperformed positive ones, indicating people engage more with negativity.
