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I'm Lavena Xu-Johnson. I write about psychology for founders. Because scaling a business means scaling ourselves first.
Happy Thursday, founders,
Sometimes you’re mid-conversation with a client, a partner, a family member, or a colleague, and suddenly it hits you. Their worldview feels heavier than the room can hold. Every headline is proof the world is brutal and unfair. Every competitor’s move is an attack. Every investor is “out to get us.” Everyone has a hidden agenda.
And slowly, you start questioning yourself: Am I assessing this objectively? Or strategically? Fear is contagious, and it’s draining. Before you realise, it starts shaping how you make decisions, even how you prioritise strategy in your own business.
Cognitive scientists call this Mean World Syndrome: the belief that the world is more hostile than it really is. George Gerbner coined the term in the 1970s to explain the impact of heavy TV news consumption. In today’s era of algorithm-fed outrage and overshared half-truths, it’s more pervasive than ever. And the truth is, none of us are immune. Our brains are wired to notice threats more than safety.
For founders, a healthy dose of fear is useful. It keeps us alert to risk, helps us build buffers, and prepares us for crisis. But when that lens tips too far, it quietly skews our strategies toward scarcity, paranoia, and mistrust.
The real question: how do we build resilience, distinguish between crisis management and fear-driven bias, and reset communication with ourselves and others, so paranoia doesn’t end up running the company?
When your brain goes “mean world,” what’s your default reaction?
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What is mean world syndrome?
Coined by sociologist and communication theorist George Gerbner in the 1970s, Mean World Syndrome describes a cognitive distortion rooted in his Cultivation Theory of media effects. Through the long-running Cultural Indicators Project, Gerbner and his team analyzed thousands of hours of television programming and surveyed audiences over decades. What they found was striking: heavy viewers of violent or negative media consistently overestimated the prevalence of crime and hostility in everyday life, even when crime statistics showed otherwise. In other words, repeated exposure doesn’t just inform - it cultivates a worldview.
Gerbner argued that television, and today, our algorithm-driven social feeds, acts as a centralized storytelling system, that reshapes our assumptions about the world. The more “mean” the stories we consume through constant exposure to fear-based narratives, whether it’s doom-scrolling social media, industry gossip, or even internal company politics, the more we see the world through filters of mistrust, danger, and scarcity.
Why bad news sticks longer than good news
Psychologists call this the negativity bias, our tendency to notice, remember, and be influenced by negative events more than positive ones (Baumeister et al., 2001). Neuroscience shows that the amygdala, the brain’s threat detection hub, activates more strongly to negative stimuli and tags them for deeper encoding in memory.
This means a single rejection, failure, or hostile email can outweigh multiple moments of praise or success. The brain treats negative information as a survival signal: it demands attention, sticks in memory longer, and shapes how we plan for the future. For founders, this can quietly tilt decision-making toward caution and overprotection, even when the overall balance of experiences is far more positive.
9 signs you might have mean world syndrome as a founder
You overestimate risk in every decision: even small ones like pricing tweaks or feature rollouts.
You read every critical comment as proof your product is failing: while ignoring the hundreds of positive ones.
You hoard control: because you “can’t trust” people to act in good faith.
You feel permanently “on defense”: reacting to threats instead of creating strategy.
You interpret team disagreements as disloyalty: rather than healthy tension.
You replay bad news in your head: while dismissing small wins as “not enough.”
Every competitor’s move feels like a direct threat: even when they’re not in your lane.
You see market downturns as doom: not cycles you can navigate.
You assume investors are out to exploit you: instead of filtering their feedback for signal.
The perception reset loop
I spoke with a founder who, after a tough product launch and a string of sharp LinkedIn comments, began to pull back from visibility. Competitors’ posts started to feel like attacks. Even constructive feedback landed like ambushes.
When he finally stepped away from the noise for a month — no industry news, no constant scrolling — he noticed something shift. The world hadn’t been waiting for him to fail. What had changed was his lens: it had narrowed until everything looked hostile.
Founder’s anti-mean-world protocol
Your perception isn’t a fixed lens, it’s a loop you can reshape
Audit your inputs/Information diet
Track your daily media consumption, not just the quantity, but the emotional tone. Are you subconsciously feeding yourself fear?
Curate sources that balance challenge with constructive insights.
Practice the narrative: cognitive reframing
When encountering a negative event (e.g., competitor success), consciously ask: “What’s the neutral fact? What’s my narrative?”
Write down alternative interpretations.
Build safe micro-communities
Founders need spaces where psychological safety is prioritised. Being in small peer groups where honesty is encouraged (without performative success posturing) can recalibrate your world view.
Expose yourself to positive deviance
Research shows that actively seeking out stories of ethical leadership, long-term collaboration, and positive-sum competition rewires your perception of the environment’s possibilities.
Closing reflection
For founders, the real risk isn’t coming from the external world, it’s letting fear shrink our vision, narrow our decisions, and isolate us from collaboration.
The world isn’t always out to get you. But your brain will believe it if you let it.
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Until next week,
Lavena
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