Biases in Favour of the Negative

Contrary to Schopenhauer’s claim that positive feelings consist simply in the cessation of negative feelings, it is contended that positive feelings are feelings just like negative feelings. But there is a bias or asymmetry in favour of the negative to the effect that negative feelings can in general have a greater intensity: pain can be more intense than pleasure, depression than elation, etc. This is because negative feelings often signal losses that are irreversible, and that by themselves guarantee reductions of well-being, whereas this is not true of the improvements signalled by positive feelings. Due to this asymmetry, compassion can be stronger than sympathetic joy and, as these emotions provide moral reasons, this explains why, intuitively, it seems morally more urgent to prevent what is bad than to produce what is good as, e.g. negative utilitarianism maintains.