Negativity Bias (and strategies to help overcome it)

[VictorR]

I thought I'd share this link as I think some members may benefit from it. It's an article but it also links to several TedX talks for those who like videos.

We all face rejection, sadness, fear, and unhappiness. When we find ourselves getting stuck on the negative aspects of our lives, however, it helps to be aware of why we might be doing so. We may be evolutionarily hard-wired to focus on negative things, but it’s possible to retrain our brains to adopt more positive frames of reference and boost our wellbeing.

Positive psychology is not about eliminating negative thoughts and emotions from our everyday experiences; it’s more concerned with how we handle them. With an understanding of negativity bias, we can start to interact with adverse events, trauma, and so forth more adaptively.

What Is The Negativity Bias and How Can it be Overcome?

Negativity bias can affect how we feel, think, & act. How can we overcome it?

positivepsychology.com

 

[Aspychata]

Thank you for this important reminder. I definitely headed down the negativity off ramp and l am struggling a bit.

 

[Metalhead]

I wish I had a negativity bias when I took the COVID test a couple of months ago.

OK, enough with the Dad jokes.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I thought I'd share this link as I think some members may benefit from it. It's an article but it also links to several TedX talks for those who like videos.

What Is The Negativity Bias and How Can it be Overcome?

Negativity bias can affect how we feel, think, & act. How can we overcome it?

positivepsychology.com

Fortunately and unfortunately, from a biological perspective, we have this thing in our brains called the amygdala,..."the fear center". It was very useful when we were nomadic tribes roaming amongst apex predators. However, this same area of the brain,...we have two,...one on each side of the brain,...is primarily responsible for feelings of anxiety, fear aggression, difficulties with change in our lives, and some resultant negative thoughts. Whenever something new is presented, many will immediately have a negative thought about it. Things we have little knowledge about will create fear and negativity.

Throw in a low dopamine condition like autism, for example, and those affected can really sink into a negative world.

I only wish there was another area(s) in the brain that would balance these thoughts out when needed,...we need a "happiness center" where once the brain realized the imbalance and "danger" has subsided, it would kick in and release those "feel good" hormones. We would then come out of our "funk" and rational thinking would prevail again.

Once that amygdala is triggered, it appears to overrule a lot of rational thinking, often carrying our thinking in a negative manner,...we go down these irrational "rabbit holes", "slippery slope" arguments, and other cognitive biases and thinking errors.

In the US, we recently had our mid-term elections, and leading up to it,...we were bombarded with negative, fear-based, irrational, one-sided add campaigns designed to trigger our amygdala. It's a very useful technique, and at the very least, it gets people off their butt to go out and vote. Many districts had record voter turnout.

 

[Tom]

Fortunately and unfortunately, from a biological perspective, we have this thing in our brains called the amygdala,..."the fear center". It was very useful when we were nomadic tribes roaming amongst apex predators. However, this same area of the brain,...we have two,...one on each side of the brain,...is primarily responsible for feelings of anxiety, fear aggression, difficulties with change in our lives, and some resultant negative thoughts. Whenever something new is presented, many will immediately have a negative thought about it. Things we have little knowledge about will create fear and negativity.

Throw in a low dopamine condition like autism, for example, and those affected can really sink into a negative world.

I only wish there was another area(s) in the brain that would balance these thoughts out when needed,...we need a "happiness center" where once the brain realized the imbalance and "danger" has subsided, it would kick in and release those "feel good" hormones. We would then come out of our "funk" and rational thinking would prevail again.

Once that amygdala is triggered, it appears to overrule a lot of rational thinking, often carrying our thinking in a negative manner,...we go down these irrational "rabbit holes", "slippery slope" arguments, and other cognitive biases and thinking errors.

In the US, we recently had our mid-term elections, and leading up to it,...we were bombarded with negative, fear-based, irrational, one-sided add campaigns designed to trigger our amygdala. It's a very useful technique, and at the very least, it gets people off their butt to go out and vote. Many districts had record voter turnout.

That's why I support re-engineering extinct mega fauna like the Sabre Tooth Tiger. Let's make the Amygdala great again!

I would love to bring back dinosaurs as well, but thought I read the DNA for such ancient creatures too deteriorated to be practical.