Our strong bias toward negativity stems from our ancient past. Our hunter-gatherer ancestor’s natural inclination when assessing their environment was to be pessimistic and vigilant. They scanned for danger in a way that kept every one of our ancestors from being eaten, poisoned, murdered, drowned, crushed or otherwise mortally damaged all the time. If not, they didn’t survive. In contrary, optimists of the distant past who weren’t on guard, continuously looking for whatever could go wrong, weren’t likely to survive for long.
This negative bias served well for thousands of years. But in our much more peaceful, complex and abundant world today, we’re better served by understanding this bias and adapting to the new environment. The consequence of this negative bias is that, negative experiences are about four times as strong for us as positive ones. This negative bias includes the mistaken idea that the world is getting worse. The world has made spectacular progress in every single measure of human well-being. But almost nobody realises it.
The fact is that with all the genuine troubles that humanity still faces, there has never been a more peaceful, healthy, abundant, literate and hopeful time overall. But we have within us a powerful vigilance for danger and woe, thanks to our ancestors. Of course, there is a place for this because there is still plenty of danger and woe in the world.
There is also a downside to be so strongly negatively biased. We overreact to bad news or negative events. That overreaction can create trouble. In looking for safety from the seemingly endless awfulness of the world, we limit our choices, creativity and opportunities. Consequently, we live much smaller, less productive and less happy lives.
Our challenge is to bring our conscious awareness to this tendency. To know that when we allow our minds to entertain every horrible possibility, that these are thoughts and not the reality we are living in at the moment. The solution to our negativity bias is to purposefully balance it with a hefty dose of reality, by focusing often on what and whom we have to be grateful for.
Try this:
1. At the end of each day, think of three good things that happened.
2.Think fondly of someone who has been a blessing to your life and why.
3. Every day, look purposefully for the things you appreciate, the things you love about your loved ones, the qualities you enjoy about your work, the beauty and delight of where you live.
4. Every bad thing in a day needs to be purposefully countered by four good things.
Make that your goal, and you will greatly improve your own grounding in reality and therefore your flourishing, effectiveness and joy in life.
Sven Franssen