, Columnist
Humans Evolved to Be Negative. We Can Change
The instinct that kept early man alive also keeps us miserable. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Hey, at least he didn’t have to deal with Twitter trolls.
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Cognitively, our species evolved to have a negativity bias. Our ancestors survived all the dangers lurking in the savannas because they were always looking out for anything bad, real or imagined. We inherited this instinct, and today, as Andreas Kluth argues, what once kept our species alive often keeps us miserable.