The Danger Bias That's Destroying Your Mental Health (And How to Fix It)

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Hey folks, today we're going to talk about the danger bias and if you don't understand this, how it can wreck your mental health.

[00:00:05]So, I'm coach Daryl Johnson, the founder of Practical Protocol. And hey, if you watch this on my YouTube channel, do me a solid and hit the subscribe. It doesn't cost anything. Anyway, so I'm going to talk about the danger bias.

[00:00:16]This is usually called negativity bias in most most places I've heard it from, but I want to narrow it down a little bit. And this is the the sensation that you just notice everything bad. You you see when you you know, the news is terrible and uh you know, you had a bad day at work and this kind of thing and it comes about from our biological history. So, if you didn't notice things that were dangerous or potentially dangerous, your ancestors or your potential ancestors simply would have ended their line in the gene pool.

[00:00:48]So, it's very important that you understand why it seems like you remember the bad days. For example, let's say you have a flat tire in your car. Well, you remember that and man, I tried to go to work, my car had a flat tire.

[00:01:00]But you don't really think about the 100 days before that where the tire wasn't flat and worked just fine. So, we are wired, hardwired to notice things that could be potential challenges, dangers.

[00:01:11]So, you know, in the old days it might have been a tiger rustling in the woods or maybe you hear the the birds stop singing as a as a rival tribe comes towards your village. Now, it's you [clears throat] know, I got pulled over by the police or you know, I got my hours cut at work. You know, or you know, things like that. So, my point being is how do we make this something in the positive? The challenge we have is if you let your danger bias invade your life, your brain gets just flooded with negativity. You start almost getting you know, black pilled. So, this is where you have like people who are doom scrolling.

[00:01:47]They're on their phone, their Instagram or their X or Twitter and they're just you know, bad news and bad news, bad news. Oh my gosh, the world's coming to an end and you know, the politicians are going to ruin everybody and you know, there's a every global conflict is going to ruin the economy and now, I'm not saying ignore signals that might be problematic, but my gosh, you have to, you know, get focused on this and make sure you don't let it ruin your life.

[00:02:12]And how do you do that? The same way you learn martial arts, the same way you learn to play piano, the same way you learn how to code, you know, well, not that AI does that, but whatever.

[00:02:24]As you were saying it, you make a conscious effort for for every minute you're online or every 10 minutes or every what, I want you to seek out and find a positive story. Maybe it's a cute puppy got rescued. Whatever makes your heart sing, I want you to take a few minutes and find those stories, talk to people who are in the real world who aren't doomers. Find, you know, hey, my my daughter's getting married, my son graduated college, things of that nature. Make it a point to seek them out and find them. All right, this is Coach Johnson. Talk to you soon. Take care.