Blog #1 - Snow White is Such a Downer

When thinking about what I should be writing for my social psychology blog I wanted to talk about an idea that was an integral part of my life—even if I’m not always consciously aware of it. It took me awhile, but upon contemplation I finally thought of the concept that I most often have fallen prey to: the “trait negativity effect/bias,” or the tendency of individuals to be affected by negative characteristics, whether it be of other people or events, more deeply than positive information during the integration of information into memory (Rozin & Roysman, 2001; Skowronski & Carlston, 1989). This tendency thus makes it easier for a person or event to be colored in a negative light.

The most obvious example of this concept that I can think of is my horribly traumatic (can you sense the melodrama?) experience on Snow White’s Ride in Disney World. The story goes like this: When I was four and a half, almost five, my parents took me to Disney World, I was ecstatic! When we got to the Magic Kingdom on the first day I was so excited and wanted to ride every ride in Fantasyland that I could find. I rode Dumbo more times than I can remember and the twirling Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups until I almost got sick. When my eyes fixed on the brilliant colors of Snow White’s Ride I asked my parents to take me. We waited in line for hours (well, probably more like 45 minutes) and when I finally sat down on the bench inside the ride I looked at my parents with wondrous anticipation; little did I know that Snow White’s Ride was designed to scare the living poop out of little children. I cannot even recall what happened during the course of the ride because for the majority of it I was sobbing and switching my hands between covering my ears and my eyes. At the end of the ride I was so distraught that it took 45 minutes of cooing, one Mickey Mouse shaped balloon, one Minnie Mouse shaped ice cream, and five times on It’s A Small World to make me smile again. According to my parents it didn’t matter how much fun I had over the next four days, all I could think about was Snow White’s Ride.

Even to this day, when I think about one of the worst experiences of my life, this comes to mind. Because of the tendency for negativity to weigh more heavily on an individual’s mind I cannot recall anything but Snow White’s horrible Ride in my memory of that trip to Disney World. Unfortunately, I will always view my first trip to Disney World as a disaster. No matter how many times I have gone back to “The Happiest Place on Earth” to right the first wrong, according to the trait negativity effect that experience will always live in infamy in my memory.
--And for those who are interested, the Disney World Corporation renamed Snow White’s Ride to Snow White’s Scary Adventures because of the incredible amount of complaints from parents.


Skowronski, J. J., & Carlston, D. E. (1989). Negativity and extremity biases in impression formation: A review of explanations. Psychology Bulletin, 105, 131- 142.

Rozin, P., & Royzman, E. B. (2001). Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and contagion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 296-320.