Bad Is Stronger Than Good
Baumeister and colleagues review evidence that bad events, emotions and feedback generally have a stronger effect than good ones. The pattern appears in everyday events, major life events, close relationships, social networks, interpersonal interactions and learning. People process negative information more thoroughly, form negative impressions and stereotypes faster, and resist disconfirming them. Explanations such as diagnosticity and salience account for some findings, but the advantage of bad over good persists when those are controlled, and hardly any exceptions were found.
Baumeister and colleagues review evidence that bad events, emotions and feedback generally have a stronger effect than good ones. The pattern appears in everyday events, major life events, close relationships, social networks, interpersonal interactions and learning. People process negative information more thoroughly, form negative impressions and stereotypes faster, and resist disconfirming them. Explanations such as diagnosticity and salience account for some findings, but the advantage of bad over good persists when those are controlled, and hardly any exceptions were found.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-26 via OpenAlex.
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Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5(4), 323-370. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.5.4.323.