Our brains come somewhat unhelpfully pre-loaded with something the psychologists call the “negative bias”. Very simply put, our evolutionary biology has hard-wired our brains not only to lean towards a negative response when there’s one available to us, but also to amplify its seriousness or risk. Something to do with assuming, back when it was relevant, that the rustling in the undergrowth was a hungry sabre-toothed tiger rather than a straightforward consequence of a bree