You are certainly not alone if you find yourself focusing on negative content instead of wholesome vibes online. And you can argue that the urge to doomscroll is linked to how most of us are hardwired.
People tend to focus much more on negative news, content, and events than on positive ones due to negativity bias. This is likely a result of our evolution, as early on in human history, our ancestors survived threats by paying more attention to potentially dangerous events. So, your ancestors passed on their genes because they were more attuned to risks and bad events.
Negativity bias is good for survival, but not-so-great for feeling optimistic or hopeful. Human beings tend to recall and respond to traumatic experiences, insults, and negative stimuli much more than positive ones.
Not only do people pay more attention to negative events, but Verywell Mind highlights the fact that they also learn more and make more decisions based on negative information than positive info. In other words, your choices are more guided by what you stand to lose and what you want to avoid losing than what you stand to gain.
Furthermore, people tend to believe that negative news sounds more truthful, even if it isn’t.
According to UC San Diego Today, there is a link between negativity bias and people’s tendency to doomscroll for long periods of time.
“Negative images and news tend to spark more brain activity than positive information. Historically, being alert to dangers like predators or conflict meant a better chance of survival and were more likely to pass on their genes. Bad news grabs and holds our attention more strongly than good news, and we process it more intensely—perhaps related to survival instinct types of reasons—which may be why negative headlines are hard to ignore,” explains Susan Tapert, Ph.D., from the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
“When we encounter alarming news or other information, the emotional center of our brain, the limbic system, revs up. The amygdala, the center of fear and other emotions, sends stress signals and urges us to keep scanning for threats. Doomscrolling may satisfy this urge, as each update keeps us hypervigilant, as if staying glued to the news might protect us from danger,” Professor Tapert stressed.
Meanwhile, doomscrolling is similar to other addictive behaviors because it releases dopamine whenever people discover new information.
According to Tapert, this creates a feedback loop, making us seek out negative news. “Feel anxious yet momentarily rewarded by new data, then seek more. It can become very hard to resist the pull of news about potential threats.”
The result is that doomscrolling takes a toll on your physical, mental, and emotional health. You are, essentially, forcing your body to react as though it were constantly in danger. You can end up exhausted, anxious, dealing with insomnia, or even depressed. Particularly vulnerable are individuals who are predisposed to anxiety or low mood because it reinforces their negative thoughts and can make them spiral.
So, how can we find that healthy balance between staying informed about what’s going on in the world without giving in to the urge to doomscroll?
