Everything You Need to Know About Negativity Bias
Article written by Triyambika Bhardwaj, Intern at Heart It Out, Bangalore
Remember that time when Rachel Green from FRIENDS said- “Everyone I know is either getting married or getting pregnant or getting promoted, and I’m getting coffee! And it’s not even for me!” Sounds relatable, doesn’t it?
We often find ourselves worrying about that “one thing” which ruined our nearly perfect day, don’t we? Well, instances like these when your presentation is appreciated by everyone but you know the part you messed up during your presentation and it can ruin the day for you or when we go through social media and look at people with makeup and filters, toned bodies, fashionable clothes, partying or when we look at our peers who got into esteemed colleges, promising jobs and even got married we tend to compare their life with ours and feel unsatisfied with ourselves. We forget to consider how different we are from each other and how different our goals and priorities are. How? Well, when we focus on the negatives rather than embracing the positives, it can leave us feeling low or frustrated, although our concern may have been but a small inconvenience.
The question is: why do we let negative experiences overshadow positive experiences?
The answer: “Negativity Bias”. Negativity bias refers to the tendency of people to emphasise more on the bad stuff rather than emphasizing the good stuff happening in their lives. According to Vaish & colleagues (2008), negativity bias refers to our tendency to attend to, learn from and use negative information more than positive information. In other words, despite all the wins we may have in our day, we zero in on our (perceived) losses.
In a more general sense, Negativity bias makes us think about:
- Insults more than compliments- “You can’t sit with us” rather than “We would be really glad to know if you can join us in the evening”.
- Failures more than success- “I failed in the thing for which I really worked hard and still couldn’t pull it off” rather than “My contributions to this project were significant and helped my team in successfully submitting the project”.
- Mistakes more than achievements- “I am really bad at this” rather than “There are some things which I can add on my lists as achievements like ”
- Problems more than solutions- “We humans are harming the nature more and more, there is so much pollution, wastage of water, animals are being harmed and so on” rather than “I am using less water for bathing, using products which are not tested on animals, choosing vegan/vegetarian food, using metal straws instead of plastic ones, and so on”.
- Negative experiences more than positive experiences- Remembering all the heartbreaks, rejections, arguments with family/friends, not getting a raise or promotion, loss of a loved one and so on rather than remembering all the heartfelt conversations, happy memories, hilarious instances, travel memories, small and big successes, anniversaries, birthdays and so on.
Got it on the brain!
According to Dr Barbara Fredrickson (2019), negativity bias evolved because it helped our human ancestors avoid threats to life, limb and social reputation. The survival concerns that our ancestors faced are not prevalent in our society today, for the most part. However, despite the change in environment, due to the process of evolution, our brains are still very much wired in such a way that we are more aware of and focused on our perceptions of negative experiences rather than positive experiences. Rick Hanson (2010) explains that the brain region responsible for regulating emotion and motivation- Amygdala, uses about two-thirds of its neurons to detect stimuli related to negative experiences.
This can be seriously problematic for us, as research has shown people tend to make bad decisions to avoid something bad and tend to exaggerate the degree of an experience when there was in fact nothing to worry about. During times of uncertainty such as the current Coronavirus pandemic, there are a zillion problems that we are all facing. The negativity bias will only add worry to the existing issues as it will make us exaggerate the number of problems and increase self-doubt and make us overlook solutions and possibilities to manage our problems.
One more thing which we need to understand
So does it mean that negativity bias is all bad for us and we should not experience negative emotions like fear, anxiety at all? No!
- Without a little stress in your work life, you might not improve it or work on the areas you lacked, which will affect your performance. Remember when you were super stressed about your work and worked on every minor detail so that the outcome could be perfect.
- Negative emotions also make us think about how we should have behaved or what we should have said, This self-reflection can help us be more aware and careful next time.
- During this pandemic we are dealing with fear, anxiety, stress and uncertainty, which makes us take precautions like wearing masks, maintaining health and hygiene and taking care of our loved ones.
- BUT, it is important to know that when we are dwelling on the negativity bias, it will make us:
▹ assume or expect the worst out of non-threatening events
▹ poorly judge people which can influence our future interactions with them
▹ emphasise on the worst in others which can influence overall bonding with them
▹ difficult to accept constructive feedback
▹ anxious, worrisome, apprehensive and also make us doubt ourselves and our decisions and make us too critical of ourselves and others around us which can impact our mental health in the long run.
7 Helpful ways to overcome the negativity bias
Since the negativity bias can negatively impact our mental health and daily functioning, here are some ways that you can use to cope with the negativity bias:
- Try the glass half full approach- The negativity bias will make you focus on the bad part of any situation. SO, try to train your mind to find the good and focus on generating solutions. For example, every time you remember something negative from an experience, try to list two positives
- Learn to move on from adverse experiences- When things don’t go your way, don’t let them take a lead in your life. Some things will not go according to your plan and then some things are out of your control. Remember that you can’t control everything but you can work on things that you can control. Nothing is permanent, the sun will rise again.
- Build self-awareness- Try to identify your thoughts and feelings and recognise which ones are helpful and the ones which are not.
- Savour the good times- Enjoy positive memories and moments like chatting with your friends, playing with your pet, praises for your hard work. Relish these moments and build upon them more and more.
- Practice positive self talk- Don’t judge yourself harshly and try to remind yourself of your hard work. Be kind and gentle and acknowledge your efforts and praise yourself as you would praise your loved ones.
- Practice mindfulness- According to Mindful.org, Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us which can help us become more in sync with our emotions and can make us observe our feelings and experiences objectively.
- Try starting a gratitude journal- Maintain a gratitude journal and write about everything you are grateful for. This will help you to focus on all the good and neglected things in your life.
This pandemic has given us a really great opportunity to take a step back and understand what are the most important things in our lives- well being of our families and ourselves. We can either choose to let the feelings of fear sink in or we can bring ourselves together and overcome the negative emotions. Negativity bias makes us look at things that are not really that bad but in our minds, we tend to exaggerate their degree due to which we ignore so many possibilities. Understanding what went wrong, why and how is important but dwelling on that and not looking at the solutions is not. Negative emotions should only bring the best out of ourselves and not the worst.
LINKS
- What is negativity bias? (n.d.). Go Strengths. https://gostrengths.com/what-is-the-negativity-bias/
- Thorne, B. (2019, October 15). Why your brain has a negativity bias and how to fix it. I Done This Blog.http://blog.idonethis.com/negativity-bias/
- Muller- Pinzler, L., Czekalla, N., Mayer, A., Stolz, D., Gazzola,V., Keysers, C., Paulus, F. & Krach, S.(2019). Negativity- bias in forming beliefs about own abilities. Scientific Reports 9, 14416 (2019). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50821-w#Abs1
- Robinson, B. (2020, October 16). The 3-To-1 Positivity Ratio And 10 Ways It Advances Your Career. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2020/10/16/10-ways-the-3-to-1-positivity-ratio-can-advance-your-career/?sh=24d5beee70c4
- Moore,C.(2021,April 26). What is negativity bias and how it can be overcome. Positive Psychology. com.https://positivepsychology.com/3-steps-negativity-bias/
- Gould, W. (2019, January 14). We’re wired for negativity. Here’s how to keep small setbacks from ruining your day. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/better/pop-culture/we-re-wired-negativity-here-s-how-keep-small-setbacks-ncna957201
- What is Mindfulness? (2020, July 8). Mindful. https://www.mindful.org/what-is-mindfulness/