Holding on to the bad stuff
I was talking to a friend, and we were wondering why we seem to cling on to negative thoughts much more than positive ones... I hypothesises there might be an evolutionary purpose, and then went off to find out more...
In this article https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/march-2020/life-mostly-good-despite-greater-power-bad-things), it says that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are among the first concepts that children learn (even dogs learn them!). Brain research shows that the brain classifies something as good or bad almost immediately after figuring out what it is, in less than half a second. For most things, everyone gets a clear emotional/affective signal about whether it is good or bad.
The article goes on to confirm (yay!) my evolutionary hypothesis: probably many things link back to survival and reproduction. Things that help sustain life in these ways are experienced as good, and things that are detrimental to survival and reproduction are bad. One of the first ‘conscious’ experiences in evolution is likely to have been pain, because it signals the brain that the body is being damaged – and preventing such damage is useful for sustaining life.
With learning, for example, getting both positive and negative feedback is the most helpful, because it gives you the most information needed for learning. However, if only one kind of feedback is available, then it seems that one learns faster via punishment and criticism than via reward and praise.
In their book "The power of bad" Dr Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist, and journalist John Tierney show that we are wired to react to bad over good: they call this "negativity bias" and have used a lot of evidence to show that, fundamentally, it is a universal human trait. Although some of us might be more sensitive to the negative information, we all pay more attention to it.
Optimism (often dubbed as "positive thinking", although I would reject such term - read my "Positive" post to know why) is often criticised for being delusional, a band aid to cover up reality, and unintelligent; however, if we all have a natural tendency to overestimate and pay more attention to bad events than good ones (negativity bias), then perhaps a slight optimistic bias might just be a strategy to counterbalance this, leading us to a more healthy, balanced, and ultimately more realistic appraisal of the world.
The question is: how? Here are some ideas from positive psychology (https://positivepsychology.com/3-steps-negativity-bias/):
1) Find the silver lining
2) Practise mindfulness (to contemplate your thought non-judgementally)
3) Live in the present and learn how to appreciate micro-moments of positivity in your life fully
But then we must consider a Stoic idea: if we are optimistic, we will be caught off guard when, almost inevitably, something bad happens. So the opposite advice applies: we must pay even more attention to bad things, even those that have not happened yet, so we are prepared...To engage in negative visualisation is to contemplate the bad things that happen to us. Giving thought to what things you value most in your life and then imagining losing those things.
What do they mean? Why?
Perhaps the best way to practise gratitude and living in the present is to be pessimistic: imagine the worst, be relieved it hasn't happened (yet), be grateful and enjoy this moment.
In this article https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/march-2020/life-mostly-good-despite-greater-power-bad-things), it says that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are among the first concepts that children learn (even dogs learn them!). Brain research shows that the brain classifies something as good or bad almost immediately after figuring out what it is, in less than half a second. For most things, everyone gets a clear emotional/affective signal about whether it is good or bad.
The article goes on to confirm (yay!) my evolutionary hypothesis: probably many things link back to survival and reproduction. Things that help sustain life in these ways are experienced as good, and things that are detrimental to survival and reproduction are bad. One of the first ‘conscious’ experiences in evolution is likely to have been pain, because it signals the brain that the body is being damaged – and preventing such damage is useful for sustaining life.
With learning, for example, getting both positive and negative feedback is the most helpful, because it gives you the most information needed for learning. However, if only one kind of feedback is available, then it seems that one learns faster via punishment and criticism than via reward and praise.
In their book "The power of bad" Dr Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist, and journalist John Tierney show that we are wired to react to bad over good: they call this "negativity bias" and have used a lot of evidence to show that, fundamentally, it is a universal human trait. Although some of us might be more sensitive to the negative information, we all pay more attention to it.
Optimism (often dubbed as "positive thinking", although I would reject such term - read my "Positive" post to know why) is often criticised for being delusional, a band aid to cover up reality, and unintelligent; however, if we all have a natural tendency to overestimate and pay more attention to bad events than good ones (negativity bias), then perhaps a slight optimistic bias might just be a strategy to counterbalance this, leading us to a more healthy, balanced, and ultimately more realistic appraisal of the world.
The question is: how? Here are some ideas from positive psychology (https://positivepsychology.com/3-steps-negativity-bias/):
1) Find the silver lining
2) Practise mindfulness (to contemplate your thought non-judgementally)
3) Live in the present and learn how to appreciate micro-moments of positivity in your life fully
But then we must consider a Stoic idea: if we are optimistic, we will be caught off guard when, almost inevitably, something bad happens. So the opposite advice applies: we must pay even more attention to bad things, even those that have not happened yet, so we are prepared...To engage in negative visualisation is to contemplate the bad things that happen to us. Giving thought to what things you value most in your life and then imagining losing those things.
What do they mean? Why?
Perhaps the best way to practise gratitude and living in the present is to be pessimistic: imagine the worst, be relieved it hasn't happened (yet), be grateful and enjoy this moment.
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