WHY is there a penchant for spreading only bad news, even in ordinary conversations? Natural disasters, traffic snarls, bureaucratic inefficiencies and low economic numbers seem to dominate the narrative of this country. Media and psychology researchers have a label for part of the answer: negativity bias, the documented tendency of audiences to notice and remember bad news faster than good.

Anecdotes shared with friends can define a country that was visited. The story of having forgotten one’s phone in a restaurant in Japan and then coming back for it the next morning to find it ready to be returned by the manager of the place is all too common. An incident of good news can associate a country with good memories.

Don’t we also have for-hire drivers, no longer just taxis, returning forgotten wallets to their passengers. (“Sir, you left your wallet in my car.”) The effort to message the rightful owner can be a heartwarming story. (Is the money still there?)

Should there be a segment of the daily news dedicated to positive stories? Newsrooms elsewhere have wrestled with the same question; the solutions-journalism and constructive-journalism movements argue that covering responses to problems, not just the problems themselves, builds reader trust, and some outlets have set aside space for exactly that kind of reporting.

Even when economic numbers, like inflation staying flat or even dropping slightly may be ignored after a government report. (The poor are still poor.) Inward remittances from OFWs have always been a steady stream of good news. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas counts those personal remittances at well over $30 billion a year, among the largest such inflows in the world and a steady prop for household consumption.

An effort to convince critics of the social benefits of even a little prosperity (or that trickle-down effect) is an uphill battle. Admitting good economic numbers is tantamount to accepting that the chief and his economic team are doing a good job. Why is this so hard to do?

One factor for the prevalence of bad news and organized cyberattacks of companies, political figures, even from the past, and accidents like drowning of athletes in training is the effort to distract attention from an ongoing trial, both here and abroad.

What better way to muddy the waters than a concerted troll diversion of other issues and personalities? (Corruption is everywhere.) And where there’s smoke, there’s somebody lighting fires.

Spreading wet blankets anyway is a national pastime.

Do we fear that good news will somehow jinx us? Do we pay more attention to negative narratives to feel more comfortable with our own personal stresses?

How many times have you heard that tired song — with all our natural resources, how can we be so far behind other countries that have none? Always, the poster child for this narrative is a country with a tiny population and a much higher GDP. (In terms of land area, this city-state is smaller than QC.)

Of course, the blame always goes to “corruption” which has been adopted almost like a cultural gene.

What about enclaves of development like cities that are efficiently run by competent and honest leaders? We have many in the country, but they don’t get too much coverage, except when the leader drops in for the inauguration of a new solar plant.

Why not extoll our virtues, along with the vices?

Maybe, the reason we don’t see poor people benefiting from the effects of prosperity (and inward remittances) is that they now move in disguise. They look like middle class folks as they crowd the malls unnoticed, no longer wearing tatty undershirts and shorts. (Those are the expats living abroad and visiting.)

Not all mallgoers are sitting on the rocking chairs. Anyway, there are usually only three of those available under the escalator. And they are never vacant. And the sitters are seldom elderly. Maybe, the ones with walking sticks are out shopping for sneakers and boxer shorts?

And what happened to “Smokey Mountain,” just when you need a visual peg for widespread poverty? The Tondo dumpsite was closed in the 1990s and the site redeveloped into low-cost housing for the families who lived off it — a transformation that drew far less coverage than the mountain of garbage ever did.

We must credit online groups, usually former classmates, business associates or motley relatives. There is of course news of someone passing away with details of the wake and interment and where to send the money with the account number. But always there are uplifting sayings and anecdotes to share with the gloomy reports.

Good news can come from an unexpected place like women’s tennis. The icon in this field has gotten her well-deserved share of adulation not just from the diaspora of Filipinos but from the residents of her native land.

Is there anything that can make the heart beat faster with joy than seeing the national flag in the tennis stands being held by a crowd of cheering compatriots?

Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com