Definition

Evolutionary psychology model showing that humans' threat-detection system (amygdala) is biased toward detecting negative information by roughly 10:1 ratio compared to positive information. Evolutionary reason: missing good news (there's fruit over there) is not lethal; missing bad news (there's a predator) is. This bias causes systematic overestimation of risks from new technologies and underestimation of their benefits. Modern manifestation: regulators ban autonomous cars before they've saved lives, ban AI before it's shown harm, because the amygdala response is 'that's dangerous, stop it.' The bias also explains media: negative news travels faster than positive.