Gravity of a Single Word

Evan Swensen
May 23, 2025

It happened in a place so quiet, even paper turning felt like a disruption. The room, a modest university lecture hall in Pennsylvania, smelled faintly of chalk and varnish—remnants of decades spent exchanging ideas. The year was 2001, and the presentation by Baumeister et al. still ripples through conversations on psychology and writing.

Their paper, “Bad is Stronger than Good,” argued a truth many writers wrestle with instinctively: negativity grabs attention more powerfully than positivity. Not because we want it to, but because evolution designed us to notice threats. One harsh critique stays with us longer than five compliments. A single negative review carves a canyon through an otherwise smooth landscape of reader praise.

This isn’t just a psychological quirk—it’s neurological. Functional MRI studies have shown how the amygdala, the brain’s sentinel for danger, lights up with activity when we hear or read negative words. Not dramatically, but enough to alter our state. Positive words, on the other hand, travel a slower, quieter route, whispering rather than shouting.

Writers, marketers, preachers, and politicians—whether knowingly or not—tap into this asymmetry. But there’s a lesson here beyond mere manipulation. For those who believe in language as a force for connection, not just conversion, understanding this tilt in human nature is an invitation to write with more care, not less.

Consider the wisdom from Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, whose Broaden-and-Build Theory showed that positive emotions expand our capacity for thought and action. While negativity narrows, positivity opens. A hopeful sentence can’t always override fear, but it can invite reflection, curiosity, even action. Her research revealed that those exposed to positive language over time not only performed better on cognitive tasks but also demonstrated greater resilience in real life.

For storytellers, the takeaway is simple and profound: negative words may linger, but positive words build.

Think of your last social media scroll. Which words leapt out—rage, crisis, outrage? These are sharp-edged words. They demand attention. But do they sustain it? Do they nurture trust, or feed a need for outrage? Language has become a trigger economy, with writers caught between the pull of the immediate and the quiet power of the enduring.

The challenge for those of us who care about meaning, not just reach, is to balance these forces. To write with precision and passion, without yielding to the easy power of provocation.

Writers like Fredrick Backman and Toni Morrison understood this balance. Their work blends sharp truths with compassionate insight. Even when Morrison described trauma in Beloved, her words carried the weight of both history and healing. The negative was never the full story—it was a threshold.

So what does this mean for marketing a book?

It means choosing words that inform and invite, not inflame. If you’re writing an email to readers, consider the emotional resonance of each word. Avoid false urgency unless the moment truly demands it. Favor clarity over cleverness. And remember: five-to-one. That’s the ratio John Gottman discovered in relationships—a balance of five positive interactions to every one negative one created stability and trust. If it works in marriages, why not in writing?

Marketing built on trust will outlast gimmicks.

A curious thing happens when writers adopt this approach. Readers lean in. They feel seen, not sold to. And that connection—quiet, slow-burning—is what keeps them coming back.

One final note. Language is not neutral. A study of political rhetoric over several decades revealed an increase in hostile adjectives and alarmist phrasing. But that trend is not irreversible. Just as words have driven us apart, they can draw us together. A well-placed phrase, a single kind sentence, can disarm a lifetime of defensiveness.

Use words with that aim. Not just to grab, but to guide. Not only to stir, but to settle.

Writing isn’t about shouting into a void. It’s about speaking into someone’s silence—gently, truthfully, and with purpose.

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