Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Negativity Bias...

     There is a psychology analogy that sometimes people treat negative experiences like velcro (they stick) and positive experiences like teflon (that roll right off). And it turns out that research shows the brain does have a negativity bias.  It’s simply our human nature to pay more attention to and give more weight to negative rather than positive experiences.  Bad, unfortunately, is stronger than good.
      So, unless we can teach and train ourselves to deliberately savor positive experiences in life, we’ll be pulled to noticing and remembering more of the bad things that happen.  But, if we can switch that response and let positive experiences hold or stick instead of slide away, we’ll be more resilient, have better self esteem and confidence, and generally be happier.  Cool!