NBC Better: We’re Wired for Negativity- Here’s How to Keep Small Setbacks from Ruining Your Day

“When one small event throws a wedge into our day it can sometimes send us down a slippery, hours-long slope of exasperated huffs and cranky faces. But why is it so hard to shake the frustration or anger?

The tendency to stew in this negative broth isn’t just common, it’s thought to be part of the human condition. In their 2001 study, psychologists Paul Rozin and Edward Royzman theorized that we tend give greater weight to the negative than the positive — it’s what’s known as “negativity bias.”