Number of words: 1,080<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pretend you\u2019re a caveman. You\u2019re in your cave preparing for a hunt, but something outside seems dangerous. You hear violent sounds you don\u2019t understand. You have two choices: Skip the hunt, spend the night hungry, but live another day; or risk death and go outside. Hold onto that thought. We\u2019ll be getting back to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, imagine you\u2019re driving to work. While getting off the highway, someone cuts you off. You slam on your brakes. You know the feeling that\u2019s coming. A tense anger rises up. Your fingers clench the steering wheel. It\u2019s enough to make you feel horrible all day. You might be less productive at work and distracted during meetings. You might try to counterbalance the feeling with a quick shot of endorphins from junk food, mindless web surfing, or time-wasting YouTube videos. This only compounds the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So why does this one minor thing\u2014getting cut off\u2014have such a powerful effect on us? Why does one negative experience ruin an otherwise great day? The answer has to do with our friend, the Caveman. Research shows that our brains evolved to react much more strongly to negative experiences than positive ones. It kept us safe from danger. But in modern days, where physical danger is minimal, it often just gets in the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s called the negativity bias. Our ancestors lived in a world of carrots and sticks. Carrots are rewards (food, sex, shelter), and sticks are punishment (predators, disease, injury). \u201cOver hundreds of millions of years, it was a matter of life and death to pay extra attention to sticks, react to them intensely, remember them well, and over time become even more sensitive to them.\u201d Carrots and sticks are internal as well as external. Bad experiences are almost always stronger than good\u2014and the way we take in that information shapes how we see ourselves. The negativity bias is so powerful, we might do anything to avoid the stick rather than find a way to pursue the carrot. In other words, the Caveman is both scared of the predator and the threat of failing\u2014potentially causing him to hide in a cave and never find a way to successfully hunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While our brains might process everything our eyes see, the mind might never become aware of it. Your focus and your attention are the keys to the information processing that filters what goes on in the conscious mind. A negative bias, then, is really a negative attention bias. When we focus on negative things, we actually reshape our perception into seeing negative things. You might be so focused on counting all the negative events in your life that you entirely miss the positive gorilla that\u2019s in the frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amygdala\u2014the brain region that regulates emotion and motivation\u2014uses about two-thirds of its neurons to detect bad news. Think about this: two-thirds of your motivation regulator is designed to focus on negativity. That seems problematic. Also, economic studies have shown people are more likely to make financial and career decisions based not on achieving something good but on avoiding something bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Older workplace models may have supported this behavior\u201420th-century assembly-line workers were not expected to \u201cfail fast\u201d or innovate. Being a good employee was following a series of don\u2019ts. Don\u2019t show up late, don\u2019t talk back to the boss, don\u2019t touch that button. Most of us aren\u2019t working that way anymore. Modern business psychology shows need to focus on growth and progress, behaviors that inherently need action, not avoidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might assume the best way to beat one bias is with another\u2014fighting fire with fire. Wouldn\u2019t your well-being be better served by feeding it positive feelings and information than negative? It\u2019s not that easy. Like it or not, evolution hard-wired your negativity bias for a reason. Over-emphasizing negative events enabled our ancestors to survive. The Caveman might live a more anxious life, hiding in a cave and worrying every sound outside is a predator, but that Caveman will live longer than the one that assumes every noise means nothing. The optimist might be right nine times out of ten, but if they\u2019re wrong once, they\u2019re dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, in modern times, that one time out of ten isn\u2019t nearly as deadly. But that doesn\u2019t mean the logic is fundamentally flawed. Negative events have the potential to damage you much more than positive events have the potential to help you. Encouraging a positive bias, however, makes it no less likely that you\u2019ll avoid negative events or experience positive emotions. In fact, it might do just the opposite. A positive bias is similar to the more well-known term confirmation bias. When you\u2019re biased toward positive confirmation, you\u2019re much less likely to notice or take in negative information. You set out each day with an expectation and expect the world to conform to it. If it doesn\u2019t, you\u2019ll find a way to perceive that it does anyway. Your mood might be higher\u2014but so are the risks you\u2019re unknowingly inviting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think of gamblers. Gamblers are very optimistic. They can empty their wallets pursuing a positive event they\u2019re absolutely sure is coming. When they\u2019re wrong a dozen times in a row, a positive bias will re-frame this to: \u201cOh, that means my lucky chance is coming up next!\u201d Or think about an average worker putting in average work. A positive bias might convince them they\u2019re doing all they need to do to succeed at work. Without a little skepticism, a little self-doubt, even a little negativity, they might never find the need to work harder or differently. If they come into work every day expecting it to go one way and contort their effort to confirm that expectation, they might miss all sorts of opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So is there a way to beat the negativity bias?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A gratitude journal sounds hokey, cheesy, silly. But research shows it\u2019s much more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Numerous studies show that practicing gratitude can have all sorts of positive effects. Regularly being thankful and noting the good things in your life can improve sleep, reduce stress, and provide a boost for your relationships. Practicing gratitude is one of the most useful results of research in the field of positive psychology. As cynical as your instincts might be, quantifying the positivity in your life, writing those things down physically, and making it a habit to do so again and again can slowly retrain your mind to focus away from the negativity bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n