Negative things disproportionally affect our thinking and are easier to remember.
- The pain, loss, hurt stand out more than positive feelings.
- 10 praise vs. 1 criticism. We focus more on negative rather than positive.
- Avoiding one unit of pain is more urgent than gaining one unit of pleasure.
- Evolutionarily we are primed for survival, our aversion to pain can distort our judgment in a contemporary environment that exposes one to a lot less pain