The quarantine was one of the most unprecedented events of the 20th century. The sudden shift from office space to the home, offline school to online, and physical meetings to zoom callings was mentally taxing and physically exhausting. It seemed so mundane and uninteresting. If any of you felt the same while reading this, I can probably tell you why you felt the way you did. The quarantine influenced part of it–it was pretty tough to handle. But the other part, the majority of the feeling, comes from this inbuilt bias in your mind called the negativity bias. The negativity bias is a cognitive bias that inclines your mind to think more about the negative than the positive. It's part of our evolutionary genetics, as the cavemen of ancient times had to pay attention to every stimulus in their environment. If they missed the carrot or positive incentives, they could find it later on the pathway. But if they missed the cue for an animal, their lives would be at stake. Essentially, most of our ancestral cavemen's negative stimuli were life-threatening, making our brains more tilted to focus on the negatives. The times of the jungle are gone, but the brain hasn't caught up to date.
A few good examples of this are present around us. We focus more on the bad stuff others have said about us than on the good stuff. There are more words to describe negative emotions like darkness, sorrow, and gloom than positive emotions like joy and happiness. Our focus on investments would be more on the potential loss than the potential gain. We are more anxious when our exams come closer than when our birthday comes closer. Our tilt to pay more attention to the negative can be seen in how our news media is oriented. It's constantly filled with pessimistic news. While there might be positive ones, they won't get as much traction, so our media doesn’t cover them.
The focus on the negative is a mechanism that has proven to affect our psychological well-being. Women with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have been shown to have a heightened sense of negativity bias. As we only focus on the negative and exaggerate its importance, it's also a causal factor for depression and anxiety. There is increased heart rate during fear perception and heightened startle response, both symptomatic of anxious reactions.
We can take simple steps to counter the effect of the negativity bias. This includes keeping a gratitude journal where we note what we are grateful for every day. We work on seeing the silver lining in every dull scenario. We replace our negative self-talk with positive rephrases. It's not easy and will take some work. But, as a Buddhist quote goes, "Think not lightly of good saying 'it will not come to me.' Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, gathering it little by little, the wise one fills oneself with good."
References:
1. Frothingham, S. (2019, December 17). What Is Negativity Bias, and How Does It Affect You? Healthline. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/health/negativity-bias
2. Moore, C. P. (2022, August 2). What Is Negativity Bias and How Can It Be Overcome? PositivePsychology.com. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://positivepsychology.com/3-steps-negativity-bias/
3. TEDx Talks. (2013, November 7). Hardwiring happiness: Dr. Rick Hanson at TEDxMarin 2013 YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpuDyGgIeh0
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