Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Curious about this. Don't have an angle, just trying to survey your perspective.

You shared: > People often engage more with things they actually don't like, and which create negative feelings.

Do you think this is innate or learned? And, in either case, can it be unlearned.

I think it’s situational.

If you measure which TV shows and movies I watch, that’s a vote of preference.

If you measure which news headlines evoke a comment from me, that’s a measure of engagement but not necessarily preference.

People respond to a lot of things that annoy them, and I think it’s a pretty common human trait. Advertising your business with bright lights and noise can be effective, but we often ban this in our towns and cities because we prefer life without them.

Not OP, but I think most of us have an instinct to correct things that we think are wrong.

I don't think such instincts can be unlearned, but they can be held in check by the realization that naive attempts to fix things can make things worse, including how we feel about ourselves.

This conscious inhibition, however, requires cognitive effort.