"For reasons I have never understood, people like to hear that the world is going to hell …"
During the pretty good history of 1800 to the present the economic pessimists on the left have nonetheless been subject to nightmares of terrible, terrible failures.
Admittedly, such pessimism sells. For reasons I have never understood, people like to hear that the world is going to hell, and become huffy and scornful when some idiotic optimist intrudes on their pleasure. Yet pessimism has consistently been a poor guide to the modern economic world. We are gigantically richer in body and spirit than we were two centuries ago.12
— Deirdre Nansen McCloskey3
Chapter 17: The Seduction of Pessimism2
One is that money is ubiquitous, so something bad happening tends to affect everyone and captures everyone’s attention.
Another is that pessimists often extrapolate present trends without accounting for how markets adapt.
A third is that progress happens too slowly to notice, but setbacks happen too quickly to ignore.
There is another psychological reason that, I guess, may increase people’s special obsession for bad news. Human desire is infinite, which naturally brings about, more or less, dissatisfaction with their current status and envy with others’ life. At this time when they hear about bad news and pessimistic statements, these kinds of negative emotions may be relieved by the feeling of “walking to destruction together”.
References
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For Reasons I Have Never Understood, People Like To Hear That the World Is Going To Hell. ˄
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The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness (Chapter 17: The Seduction of Pessimism), Morgan Housel. ˄ ˄2