Crouching Tigers - Fear in the Free Market

Brain imaging research from Duke University found that positive events are processed by the prefrontal cortex, which is slow to process and so we often either assume good things happen by fluke or are quick to forget or disregard positive outcomes.

On the other hand, negative events are processed by the amygdala which controls our fight-or-flight response, concluding that bad things happen on purpose and are usually caused by someone or something in proximity to the issue in question. Bad events linger on our minds for much longer than good events.

The anthropological consensus is that this phenomenon is tethered to an intrinsic survival mechanism. In order to stay alive in the wild we had to have strong memories of dangerous experiences so we don't repeat mistakes. The brain forces us to be driven by negative outcomes.

This presents issues in the modern world, where an extension of social nuances present a longer list of what we perceive as 'negative' outcomes. The term starts to take on a much more subjective "first-world" context (a bad day at work, a fight with your spouse, social media envy, etc).

As a result, our minds are presented by an army of hypothetical "crouching tigers" - what we perceive as imminent threats but in reality are not matters of life and death.

Today, crouching tigers come in the form of spooky market fluctuations that affect our trading decisions, or the excessive fear of the risk of failure in work, business and life.

Fear can also be a definitive emotional response with direct implications to the economy.

The bottom line is presented by Shawn Achor, Harvard psychologist, who found that you're approximately 31% smarter in a positive frame of mind.

The problem is that many modern infrastructures with good intentions inadvertently work against a positive frame of mind.

Media machines often incite fear with stories that instill negative world views, because that's what sells.

Consumer machines are designed to make you feel perpetually unsatisfied with what you have, in the hopes that you go out and buy more stuff to fuel the economy with your purchasing behaviour while ensuring profits for free market ventures.

Free media is important. The free market is important. But all too often, we capitalise on fear and sorrow at scale, breeding a whole new host of societal problems, one of which is a dumber society filled with people who see crouching tigers that aren't really there.

Khalid Fadzillah - Head of Research & Co-founder @ Palindrome Communications. https://palindromecommunications.com/