Good News and Bad News: Asymmetric Responses to Economic Information

There is a growing body of work suggesting that responses to positive and negative information are asymmetric—that negative information has a much greater impact on individuals’ attitudes than does positive information. This paper explores these asymmetries in mass media responsiveness to positive and negative economic shifts and in public responsiveness to both the economy itself and economic news coverage. Using time-series analyses of U.K. media and public opinion, strong evidence is found of asymmetry. The dynamic is discussed as it applies to political communications and policymaking and more generally to public responsiveness in representative democracies.