Negative responses trigger a greater emotional response, thus garner more attention and upvotes.
The fact that negative content commonly reaches the top is just a side effect of the voting system, which reflects human psychology.
As an aside, I think the rise of subreddits like r/wholesomememes and other purely positive subreddits on r/all was done intentionally to counter the rampant negativity on Reddit. I think it's great. I wonder what kind of cultural guidance systems the mods on this site have in place.
The fact that negative content commonly reaches the top is just a side effect of the voting system, which reflects human psychology.
As an aside, I think the rise of subreddits like r/wholesomememes and other purely positive subreddits on r/all was done intentionally to counter the rampant negativity on Reddit. I think it's great. I wonder what kind of cultural guidance systems the mods on this site have in place.