Do you think people gain more recognition for doing something bad than doing something good?

Posted by Equivalent_Ask_1416@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 21 comments

I can't help but feel public interest is geared more towards negativity and people doing negative things, rather than people doing positive things. I do believe it's about who and what you know, your environment, determination and hard work that can depend on how much good or bad you do. I sometimes wonder what good can I do to gain recognition. Has anyone gained recognition for doing good things in the newspaper or on TV, and what did you do to gain this notoriety?

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21 Comments

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onionsofwar@reddit

Maybe just me but I think it's part of our human nature to be more stimulated by negativity. Something positive happens, 'great news', we say, but there's not often much to say about it than that. It's usually evident why something is good. When something terrible happens we find ourselves talking about blame, how we'd never do that, or how the problem needs to be dealt with and _why_ something or someone is bad. We're social animals so constantly find ways to put a boundary between 'us' and 'them', between behaviours we accept and those we don't. Also, we're problem solvers so negative situations required our attention and action, good ones don't.

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Equivalent_Ask_1416@reddit (OP)

I don't think it's nature, we're all taught how we take to the world.

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onionsofwar@reddit

Maybe, but from an evolutionary perspective it makes sense to take positive for granted and deal with problems..that's why throughout human cultures there's an emphasis and _going out of our way_ to give praise and be thankful and all that, because if it came naturally we wouldn't have to teach it.

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FamSender@reddit

Yes, 100%. It’s human nature. I’ve never received a single bit of praise or recognition for the objectively amazing things I’ve done. I’ve talked people out of suicide, rescued people from house fires, pulled people out of water when they were drowning and so on and so on. Contrast with the guy that tried to murder me, all over the paper, on the TV and everything.

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Equivalent_Ask_1416@reddit (OP)

I don't think it's nature at all.

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FamSender@reddit

Are you a bot?

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Equivalent_Ask_1416@reddit (OP)

No, I just believe that the human experience is learned and nothing to do with nature.

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FamSender@reddit

Even this response is robotic. Elaborate, expand your point.

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Equivalent_Ask_1416@reddit (OP)

Well what can I expand on? The things we pick up in life such as behaviours, attitudes and mannerisms are learned from other people in the environment you're in. For example, at work you wouldn't dress in a bunny suit and belittle your employer by buying them McDonald's Happy Meals would you? Maybe that's something you do in your spare time, but I don't think big important business people would appreciate it.

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FamSender@reddit

That’s a long winded way of saying “it’s human nature to conform to societal norms”. Aside from your absolute prattle let me tell something: Negativity bias is an evolutionary advantage, humans naturally focus on the negative and remember the negative over the positive. That’s just a fact. I think it’s maybe past your bedtime. School tomorrow.

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Equivalent_Ask_1416@reddit (OP)

It's only prattle if you don't understand the underlying point-which is people behave like they do in accordance to their environment. Is that wrong?

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FamSender@reddit

Yes, you are wrong.

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Equivalent_Ask_1416@reddit (OP)

How?

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Slobbadobbavich@reddit

Yes, just look at Kim Kardashian, she's famous for a sex tape then a god awful TV show. Nothing about that family was borne from doing good yet people have made them one of the most famous families in the world. Buckle up, buckeroo!

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Soggy_Detective_4737@reddit

I once had a teacher tell me that they remembered the badly behaved kids' names before the good ones.

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BamBammr7@reddit

Bad news is good news, good news is no news, and no news is bad news.

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LoudAd5346@reddit

Helping Betty to pack her shopping in Tesco vs a roundhouse kick to Betty's head and stealing her pension..... one will get more recognition than the other. People generally don't do good things purely for recognition.

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Sea-Still5427@reddit

Your terms are adding some confusion. Recognition (your title) is generally a positive thing and suggests onlookers approve, whereas notoriety (last line) is negative fame.

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EdmundTheInsulter@reddit

Well it's a shortcut, I mean lee Harvey Oswald is as famous as Bill Gates I assume.

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winecardi@reddit

I see this first hand all the time in my job. I run a restaurant and the whole time things are going well and ticking over, its radio silence from customers and bosses alike. But god forbid a bad day, its a negative review, a snarky comment from above, a team spat, an aggressive customer... the list goes on. I think people are instinctively geared to react more to the shock of a negative engagement than the comfort of consistent positive ones because it aggravates our fight or flight. If things are going well the whole time, everyone's nervous systems are settled. But a bad interaction disregulates not just you but everyone adjacent, so its more memorable. To truly gain solid, positive recognition, you need a combination of genuine observable hard work/good deeds and also the luck of finding the interaction(s) that will put that in the spotlight, and not, say, the one jarring negative thing of the week that ends up stealing attention.

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