Thesis & Purpose: If people can be more aware of others inborn flaws, then maybe evaluating and rationalizing a tough situation won’t be so tough. I. Status-Quo Bias People tend to be apprehensive of change, which often leads us to make choices that guarantee that things remain the same, or change as little as possible. Needless to say, this has ramifications in everything from politics to economics. We like to stick to our routines, political parties, and our favorite meals at restaurants. Part of the perniciousness of this bias is the unwarranted assumption that another choice will be inferior or make things worse. The status-quo bias can be summed with the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" — an adage that fuels our conservative tendencies. And in fact, some commentators say this is why the U.S. hasn't been able to enact universal health care, despite the fact that most individuals support the idea of reform. II. Negativity Bias …show more content…
Social scientists theorize that it's on account of our selective attention and that, given the choice; we perceive negative news as being more important or profound. We also tend to give more credibility to bad news, perhaps because we're suspicious (or bored) of proclamations to the contrary. More evolutionarily, heeding bad news may be more adaptive than ignoring good news (e.g. "saber tooth tigers suck" vs. "this berry tastes good"). Today, we run the risk of dwelling on negativity at the expense of genuinely good news. In the book, Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives, Dean Buonomano argues that crime, violence, war, and other injustices are steadily declining, yet most people would argue that things are getting worse — what is a perfect example of the negativity bias at
In The Influencing Machine, Gladstone argues that the media focuses on putting out news that remotely threatens viewers. In the text she states, “emphasizing bad news is good business…world [seems] more dangerous…actually is.” It is good business considering that it keeps the audience on their toes and makes them think about what is going on. When you visit news sites or look at news stations
A human being is a complicated entity of a contradictory nature where creative and destructive, virtuous and vicious are interwoven. Each of us has gone through various kinds of struggle at least once in a lifetime ranging from everyday discrepancies to worldwide catastrophes. There are always different causes and reasons that trigger these struggles, however, there is common ground for them as well: people are different, even though it is a truism no one seems to able to realize this statement from beyond the bounds of one’s self and reach out to approach the Other.
Michael F. Scheier and Charles S Carver say, “Psychologists have approached the notion of positive thinking from a variety of perspectives. Common to most viewers, thought, Is the idea that positive thinking is some way involved holding positive expectancies for one’s futures”. Well, that being said, when one is becoming too optimistic and positive, the won 't be prepared for events that will come to them. Ehrenreich says, “Sometimes we need to heed our fears and negative thoughts, and at all times we need to be alert to the world outside ourselves, even when that included absorbing bad news and entertaining the views of “negative” people” (204). In my opinion, I think it is very important to watch the news, some may think differently. According to the Huffington post, a blogger advised, “Studies show that you will sleep better with less news intake late at night” (193). With studies shows that you will sleep better because one isn’t getting the bad news intake that keeps you up all night thinking about it, that is one’s choice to watch the certain news they are watching. I think everyone should be aware of their surroundings, one cannot just be so optimistic because events like the great depression, 911 and other disasters that happened in America would have come more prepared as if you were being too positive nothing is going to go wrong
Agenda setting is the process that determines appropriate solutions to a certain problem of a given field (Kingdon, 3). The process itself consists of three streams: problems, policies, and politics (Kingdon, 16). These separate streams interact when windows of opportunity are open – solutions are fitted with problems, and the impetus for this relationship is amenable political forces (Kingdon, 20). Prominent agendas are determined by the problem or political streams, while solutions are crafted in in the policy stream (Kingdon, 20). In the field of health care, the agenda setting is based upon the high number of uninsured citizens, the rising cost of medical care, the development of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in response to this issue, and the key players that debate whether governmental involvement is the correct approach in the issue of universal healthcare.
Lastly, a fifth reason Americans disfavor universal health care is because conservative lawmakers have poisoned their minds with the belief that it would mean lower salaries, higher taxes, longer wait times, and run-down government hospital facilities (Light 2003). Due to the information received by legislation and put out there in the media, it’s no surprise why, in the year 2015, lawmakers are still debating universal health care and trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Although the United States has recently undergone health care reform, which has enabled many Americans to gain access to affordable health insurance, the system is still nowhere near perfect.
Since we are biologically wired for negativity bias, we naturally react to situations instead of
We often believe that others are more like ourselves than they really are. Thus, our
...eories to stay stagnant and restrictive at the same time as our economies, ethical systems and societies are changing so dramatically right in front of us?
The movement for changing the Health Care system believes that there is a need for change because of the problems that the system faces today cannot be handled. Every month, 2 million Americans lose their insurance. One out of four, 63 million Americans, will lose their health insurance coverage for some period during the next two years . 37 million Americans have no insurance and another 22 million have inadequate coverage . Losing or changing a job often means losing insurance. Becoming ill or living with a chronic medical condition can mean losing insurance coverage or not being able to obtain it. Long-term care coverage is inadequate. Many elderly and disabled Americans enter nursing homes and other institutions when they would prefer to remain at home. Families exhaust their savings trying to provide for disabled relatives. Many Americans in inner cities and rural areas do not have access to quality care, due to poor distribution of doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics and support services. Public health services are not well integrated and coordinated with the personal care delivery system. Many serious health problems -- such as lead poisoning and drug-resistant tuberculosis -- are handled inefficiently or not at all, and thus potentially threaten the health of the entire population. Rising health costs mean lower wages, higher prices for goods and services, and higher taxes. The average worker today would be earning at least $1,000 more a year if health insurance costs had not risen faster than wages over the previous 15 years . If the cost of health care continues at the current pace, wages will be held down by an additional $650 by the year 2000.
Growing up in a very accepting and forward home, I always found myself to be free of most bias. Having been the target of some racial prejudice in the past, I always told myself that I would make sure nobody else had to feel the same way. While this may be a great way to think, it really only covers the fact that you will not have any explicit bias. What I have realized during the course of this class is that implicit bias often has a much stronger effect on us than we might think, and even the most conscious people can be affected.
Why is it that people are so against the idea of change? Change isn’t scary or frightful. For those people who are scared of change, are the ones who make unfair laws and rules that people who are different have to follow. Like African-Americans, who had far few rights then they do today.
Democrats and Republicans, despite their differences, both agree on two things: one, the United States spends an overwhelmingly large portion of their Gross Domestic Product on health care (approximately 10% more than the world average) and two, their current health care system is radically unjust. Even though a vast majority of the United States is screaming, “I don’t want Socialism!” in response to government-funded health care, the unassailable truth is that in America right now, there is a lot of Socialism. The taxes that the employed pay fund public education, the military, and roads; and those who do not pay taxes to contribute still go to their local high school and drive on the same highways. There is even Socialized medicine -- there is just an extremely ineffective system of medicine. This is because, in the US, anyone can go to virtually any hospital and get treatment for anything from a broken leg to a tumor in their brain. They may not be able to pay for the treatment — it might even bankrupt them — but they can receive treatment nonetheless. In 2009, according to the United States Census Bureau, about 48.6 million people (15.7% of the population) did not have health care, and this number has hardly changed in the last four years. The rich can pay out-of-the-pocket for any procedure they want, whether it be for a terminal illness or another lip injection, while the poor go bankrupt for falling off a ladder. The lack of coverage for the bottom 40% only increases the gap between the poor and the rich and the middle class is gradually disappearing, which not only places this country at a moral crossroad but also threatens a heavy blow to the economy. Affordable healthcare is a civil right that all members of a free nati...
The negative effect of the optimism bias is that it can provide the individual with an unrealistic perspective. The individual believes that they can somehow influence what happens and they choose to believe that their future is full of good, positive experiences. They don’t consider the fact that their probability of bad things happening is lower than the actual probability; the individual focuses on avoiding defeat and heartache. I commit the optimism bias when I think about
Emotion and cognition are intricately intertwined and hard to tell which is influencing us in our everyday lives. While the former are sometimes referred to as feelings and affects (this term would be used interchangeably with emotion in this article) or “hot cognition”, the latter is often thought as our reasoning, or “cold cognition” (Zajonc, 1980). However, it is quite evident from our day-to-day account of events that it’s always the emotional parts of life that catch our attention - especially the bad ones. For one thing, as a general phenomenon, bad news is considered more newsworthy and can easily attract more reader attention (Baumeister,
Mr. David Myers in “This Will Make You Smarter,” wrote an article called “Self-Serving Bias.” His ideas for writing this article were to illustrate the importance of how each of us thinks about ourselves and others. According to the author, we may not be fair or objective in some of our judgments. With respect to judging ourselves, we may be motivated to have a positive self-concept and high self-esteem. However, we may be biased in how we perceive ourselves. The author defined “Self-Serving Bias” as the tendency to judge oneself in a positive manner even when the positive evaluation is not justified.