Why are people attracted to failure?

October 11th, 2015, 08:54 PM

Maybe because of the same reason people like to watch the terrible news, the ones that show disaster or pain.
Having said that i do like to read and learn from failure because it can help you evolve without making the same mistakes but it�s hard like that ... most of the times i have to bang my head on the wall to learn not to do someting bad

October 11th, 2015, 09:20 PM

It seems to me that a high percentage of traders have likely had these thoughts or considered posting a thread along these lines at some time. Reading someone else's gives them the opportunity to see the exchange without putting themselves out there.

February 25th, 2016, 07:02 PM

Big Mike

Simple and to the point -- why are people attracted to pain, suffering or failure?

Take a look at analytics for the nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) twitter account for the last few days

The average engagement rate is about 5%, but look at the engagement rate on the highlighted tweet -- 26%, 5x the normal.

I've seen this repeated over and over again. The phenomenon is not just localized to Twitter. For example, this old thread:

Time to Give Up

I get a lot of emails and PM's from people seeking advice. Usually they've been losing money and don't really know what to do next. But I received a particular letter recently that made me want to write this post.

What are some of the characteristics …

Titled "Time to give up" has received a very disproportional number of views compared to a normal thread with a similar number of replies. In other words, people were attracted to the thread.

You can say I was being overly sensational or dramatic, but the reason I titled the thread "time to give up" was because I wanted to get people's attention and hoping they could find some commonality or relate to the experiences I was sharing, and ultimately benefit from it. The same is true when I highlight someone's post on Twitter that I feels needs some help, I do it because it's my wish that they will receive input from varying angles that will allow them to improve or not make some terrible mistakes.

This is not limited to nexusfi.com (formerly BMT). For years, I noticed that on other communities the threads where someone was struggling always received a disproportional amount of views. It's important that I am saying views -- not responses. I think it's normal for people to also want to help, so when they see someone struggling they try and help. This can account for extra responses to these types of threads.

But the views are what interests me, why are more people attracted to view this type of material?

Look at sites like Zerohedge. Their entire business model is "doom and gloom". In fact, there are entire so called "news" organizations in the main stream media who's entire model is built on negativity.

Doom and gloom, negativity -- it sells. Why is this?

Mike

It may be also due to Schadenfreude, which is described as "Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others".

Personally I think that, rather than pleasure, there is something more primordial behind experiencing someone else's failure, or pain or even death, and I believe it to be related to our survival insinct. In other words, whenever we see somebody in distress (financial or otherwise), there may be a component of us that triggers a "better them than me", self-preservation kind of response.

That's why, as Itchymoku pointed out, we tend to slow down to get a glimpse into an accident on the side of the road. I don't believe it to be because we derive pleasure in watching but there's a part of us that can't resist looking and I think it's that primitive part that wants to remind us that we survived.

March 1st, 2016, 02:01 PM

Reasons of failure are more universal than reasons of success.

To be more specific for example I have a system that give me very good intraday results on CL. This system has little value for someone else than me and that for many reasons (maybe you don't trade CL, maybe you don't trade intraday, maybe...etc.).

But when I had a bad day, when I failed most of the time it is due to fear, greed, money management etc... all of them are general principles and kind of errors that will apply to any type of trader.

That is reason why failure stories are in some way more interesting than success stories. Having a good system won't guarantee you success but doing things in a wrong way will guaranty you failure.

(Of course they are also some general principal for success but most of them are avoiding reasons and causes of failure?)

March 1st, 2016, 04:39 PM

Okina

Reasons of failure are more universal than reasons of success.

To be more specific for example I have a system that give me very good intraday results on CL. This system has little value for someone else than me and that for many reasons (maybe you don't trade CL, maybe you don't trade intraday, maybe...etc.).

But when I had a bad day, when I failed most of the time it is due to fear, greed, money management etc... all of them are general principles and kind of errors that will apply to any type of trader.

That is reason why failure stories are in some way more interesting than success stories. Having a good system won't guarantee you success but doing things in a wrong way will guaranty you failure.

(Of course they are also some general principal for success but most of them are avoiding reasons and causes of failure?)

But we are inspired by success stories, not failure ones. I personally find failure stories scary, but I am drawn to how people succeed - what paths they go through, how they react when they experience setbacks, etc.

I also think you will find that people interested in your thread are interested in it because it sounds promising, not damning

Why are people attracted to failure?

Discussion in Psychology and Money Management

Why are people attracted to failure?