Safer, Yet More Afraid Than Ever

Mar 21, 2022 by Ted Lamade

We were so close.

Just when Covid-19 appeared to be fading, the largest military conflict since World War II broke out in Eastern Europe leading to devastating consequences for millions of people, spiking commodity prices, weaker equity markets, and geopolitical uncertainty.

Unsurprisingly, countless people have commented how “unbelievable” this series of events has been. But is it? It is really unbelievable? Or, is it actually completely believable? Better yet, is it something we should come to expect by now?

History is riddled with chaos and conflict. Yet, people have an amazing ability to forget this fact. Look no further than former Andreessen Horowitz general partner Balaji Srinivasan’s recent tweet,

Is Srinivasan right? Were the 1990’s idyllic? Not really, and certainly not in his former boss’s mind. Just look at his response,

Andreessen is right, but this phenomenon doesn’t just apply to the 1990’s. Every decade has been turbulent. Remember the lines to Billy Joel’s song, “We didn’t start the fire”?

So why does it so often feel like things are getting worse? Many reasons, but one that does not get enough attention is tied to how we consume our information these days.

The Filtering Effect

Try something. Click on “MSNBC” and/or “Fox News”. Write down a few of the top stories you see. Seriously. Try it. Now do the same thing for the New York Times. Now The Dallas Observer. Now the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Now the The Annapolis Capital Gazette. And finally The Missoulian. Anything jump out? Trends? Patterns? Takeaways?

As you move away from large media outlets to smaller more local ones, the number of negative headlines drops. The reason? “Fear sells” is the obvious answer, yet there is something else at play. It is called the “filtering effect” and it is having a material impact on society and the markets alike these days.

The filtering effect simply states that whether you are looking at large or small data sets, the averages are very similar, but the extremes are drastically different.

This logic applies to countless other things in life.

So why does this matter? Because humans are drawn to extremes and the media (both mainstream and social) knows it.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/safer-yet-more-afraid-than-ever/