Negativity can change your mind

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Criticism often has a greater impact than praise, bad news often attracts more attention than good. The negatives have more impact on our brains than the positives. Psychologists call this negative bias (aka negative bias).

1. What is negative bias?

Negative bias is the tendency to easily notice and pay attention to negative stimuli. The negative bias, also known as the asymmetry between the positive and the negative, also means that it is easier for us to rebuke someone more strongly than to praise them for being negative even though they are already negative. are working actively.
We humans often remember pain, loss, bad things more than positive experiences; it is better to repeat criticism than to praise; react to negative stimuli more strongly; think about negative things more often.
For example, you may be having a great day at work, and suddenly a colleague makes a negative comment and it makes you feel uncomfortable. When you come home from work and someone asks how was your day, you answer that today was terrible, despite the fact that you had a pretty good day and only had one incident. negative happens.

2. What do the studies say about negative bias?

Studies have shown that in a wide range of psychological events, people tend to focus more on the negative. We tend to pay more attention to the negative, learn from negative outcomes and experiences, and then make decisions based on negative information more than on positive data.
Motivation: Psychological research shows that negative bias affects motivation to complete tasks. Instead of focusing on what you will achieve, negative bias can cause you to focus on what you may have to give up to achieve that goal. Bad news: Studies have shown that negative news is more likely to be perceived as truthful. Negativity attracts more attention, it can also be seen as more valuable. This may be why bad news seems to capture more of our attention. Politics: The difference in negative bias is also related to political ideology. Some studies show that, compared with libertarians, politically conservative people can respond more psychologically to negative information. For example, there has been some evidence finding that people who consider themselves politically conservative are more likely to think negatively and rate uncertain stimuli as threatening. Such a difference in negative bias could explain why some people tend to value things like tradition and security while others are more open to accepting change. Watch now: Always have negative thoughts with slow thinking, what to do?

3. Why can negative thinking change our mind?

The tendency to be negative, to pay more attention to and focus on the bad, to be negative and to ignore, to ignore the good, the positive may be the result of an evolutionary process. Earlier in human history, paying attention to the bad, dangerous, and negative threats in the world was literally a matter of life and death. Those who are more adapted to danger and those who are more attentive to their surroundings are more likely to survive. This means they are also more likely to pass on genes that make them more alert to danger.
Development: Research shows that negative bias begins to emerge in infancy. Newborns tend to pay more attention to positive facial expressions and voices, but this starts to change as they approach 1 year of age. During this time, children begin to form and develop responses to negativity. This suggests that a negative tendency of the brain appears in the second half of the first year of life. Brain response: Neuroscientific evidence has shown that there is greater neural processing in the brain in response to negativity. Studies involving the measurement of brain potentials and events have shown that the brain's response to negative stimuli is stronger than positive.

4. How does negativity affect our lives?

While we may no longer need to be on high alert like our early ancestors did to survive, negative bias still plays an important role in how the brain works. Research has shown that negative bias can have many effects on the way we think, react, and feel.
Negativity can affect your relationships and decision making, as well as the way you see people.
Relationships: Negative bias can have a profound effect on relationships. It can make us expect the worst in others, especially those we've known for a long time. In relationships, negative words and comments will be heavier. It is also important to be aware of your own tendency to overcome negativity. By understanding this natural human tendency, you can focus on stopping expecting the worst. Decision-making: Negative thinking can have an effect on the decision-making process. In their famous work, Nobel Prize-winning researchers Kahneman and Tversky discovered that when making a decision about an event, we always focus more on the negative aspects. The tendency to overemphasize the negative can have an impact on the choices people make and the risks they are willing to take. People perception: When forming an impression of others, people also tend to focus more on negative information.

5. How to overcome negative thoughts?

Negative bias can affect your mental health, make you sink into dark thoughts, hurt your relationships with loved ones, make it difficult to maintain optimistic outlook on life.
Fortunately, there are ways you can change your thinking and combat the tendency to think negatively, including:
Stop negative self-talk: For example, after a As events unfold, your mind constantly pops up with questions like "I shouldn't have done this". Such negative self-talk can shape the way you think about yourself and others. So stop those thoughts whenever they form in your head. Instead of correcting past mistakes that cannot be changed, consider what you have learned and how you can apply them in the future. Reframe the situation: The way you talk to yourself about events, experiences, and people plays a big role in shaping how you interpret events. When you find yourself tending to more negative thoughts or focusing only on the bad aspects of a situation, find ways to reframe the event in a positive direction. This does not mean ignoring potential dangers, simply focusing on giving fair and equal weight to the good events. Remember the positive moments: When you find yourself contemplating things, find an uplifting activity to pull yourself out of this negative thought. For example, if you are replaying an unpleasant event or outcome in your mind, consciously try to redirect your attention elsewhere and engage in an activity that gives you peace of mind. you joy. Some other ideas to help you get rid of negative thoughts like going for a walk, listening to upbeat songs, reading a good book, enjoying the positive moments in life. Because positive experiences need to be remembered more, it is important to pay more attention to the good things that will happen. You need to work harder to make happy moments last in your memory, just like how negative thoughts work in our brains. Take time and really focus when wonderful things happen to us and repeat that moment a few times in our mind so that the brain can remember. Use positive words: Negative bias can have a powerful effect on your behavior, but if you can be aware of it, it also means you can take action. way to have a more positive outlook on life. Taking a more mindful approach that includes becoming aware of one's own negative thinking tendencies and raising a sense of well-being to the forefront of awareness is one of the best ways to combat it. negative bias. Doubting the negative can have serious consequences, so taking steps to combat this bias can play a role in helping you enjoy better mental health. Negative thinking can change our thinking, affect our relationships, the way we make decisions, and see and evaluate others. If we are aware of our own negative tendencies, we can also find ways to overcome it and have better mental health.
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Reference source: verywellmind.com; webmd.com.