Negativity Biases Online

The Interplay of Individuals and Algorithms in News Consumption

Noh, Seonhye
Soroka, Stuart

Department of Communication, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Stuart Soroka Department of Communication University of California, Los Angeles 2225 Rolfe Hall Box 951538 345 Portola Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90095-1538 USA [email protected]

Received October 14, 2024

revised April 22, 2025

Accepted May 5, 2025

Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications 37(5):p 296-306, 2025. | DOI: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000479

A considerable body of work finds evidence of negativity biases in news production and consumption. These biases have consequences for the reliability and accuracy of digital information. For this special issue, focused on the “complex interplay of technology and human biases,” we consider how individual-level variation in negativity biases impacts both news selection and news provision. Using digital trace data, we analyze the news selections of roughly 25,000 SmartNews users over 6 months. We find evidence of trait-level differences in individuals’ negativity biases in news selection and consider the degree to which those trait-level differences in negativity biases are sustained through algorithmically personalized news feeds.