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Bad News Sells
It can also hurt our health
One of the first things I started to do when I got cancer back in 2004 was to stop watching the news and start watching I Love Lucy re-runs.
There was a reason for this.
I realized if I was going to deal with my disease, I needed to be in a positive state of mind. And as research has shown, watching the news too much can affect our mental health. This is particularly true of exposure to bad news, which tends to predominate the headlines.
Unfortunately, bad news sells. As Doug Larson said, “Bad news travels fast. Good news takes the scenic routed.”
Journalists have long known that stories about natural disasters, crime waves, and economic crisis sell better than more positive ones. In the gossip columns, salacious stories and ones that reveal a celebrity’s dirty laundry do better.
There are psychological reasons for this.
Does this mean we shouldn’t stay informed about current events? After all, staying up-to-date can help us make better decisions, stay engaged, and provide us with topics of conversation.
But it’s important to find a balance. It’s good to stay informed but not so good to focus so much on outside events that you get stressed out about things you cannot change.
