Our information sources can have structural biases in them that affect our vibe about the state of the world.

We intuitively assume that the signals we see are randomly drawn from the distribution of real experiences, but actually there is a structural bias… giving us a fundamentally incorrect understanding of the underlying distribution.

This bias is not intentional or cynical; it simply emerges due to fundamental asymmetries inherent to the medium and what people prioritize paying attention to.

For example, on Instagram people are far more likely to share pictures that make them look cool, happy, interesting, or successful.

As a result, we compare our own more mundane lives and conclude we are below average.

Another example: news focuses on things that are surprising or negative.

Negative news is more psychology salient to us (negative news could lead to a game-over, whereas positive news couldn't).

The news doesn't bother reporting when a dog bites a man.

But that leads us to have skewed senses of the underlying distribution.

"Wow, there sure are a lot of men biting dogs!"