Negativity Bias: Why the Effects of Criticism Last Longer Than Praise

In childhood, we are often taught to use the expression “what comes from below does not reach me” when we hear an insult.

But with experience, adults understand that this old adage is far from true.

While physical injuries can take weeks to heal, negative comments can leave scars for life.

Whether it’s a serene criticism made by a teacher in the classroom or a cruel comment fired in the heat of an argument by a friend or boyfriend, we tend to remember criticism much better than positive comments.

And this is due to a phenomenon called the negativity bias.

In fact, a number of complex effects can be explained by this bias, which is the universal tendency for negative emotions to affect us more strongly than positive ones.

This makes us pay special attention to threats and exaggerate the dangers, according to Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist at the University of Queensland in Australia and co-author of the book. The Power of Bad: And How to Overcome It.

While focusing on the darker side of the world around us might seem like a depressing prospect, it has helped humans overcome everything from natural disasters to plagues and wars, leaving them better prepared to deal with these events (although there is evidence of that optimism can also help protect us from extreme situations).

The human brain evolved to protect our bodies and keep us alive – and it has three warning systems to deal with new dangers.

There’s the ancient basal ganglia system that controls our fight-or-flight response; the limbic system that triggers emotions in response to threats to help us understand dangers; and the more modern prefrontal cortex, which allows us to think logically in the face of threats.

“Our ancestors who had this bias [negativo] were more likely to survive,” says Baumeister.

Humans are hardwired to look for threats, and at just eight months old, babies turn more urgently to look at the image of a snake than a friendlier frog.

At age five, they learn to prioritize an angry or fearful face over a happy one.

Baumeister says focusing on problems first can be a good strategy. “First, get rid of the negative (aspects) and solve the problems. Essentially, stop the bleeding.”

But while focusing on the downside can keep us safe in extreme situations, the negativity bias can prove useless in everyday life. Baumeister believes that until we learn to overcome the disproportionate impact of the negative, it distorts our view of the world and how we react to it.

For example, life tends to look bleak when flipping through the pages of a newspaper. Journalists are often accused of chasing bad news as it sells newspapers and attracts viewers.

This may be partially true. Researchers have shown that readers are naturally drawn to calamitous stories and are more likely to share them with others.

Rumors about potential dangers – even if they are unlikely – spread far more easily than rumors that could be beneficial.

In one study, scientists at McGill University in Canada used eye-tracking technology to analyze what news subjects paid the most attention to.

They found that participants often chose stories about corruption, setbacks, hypocrisy, and other bad news, rather than positive or neutral stories.

People who were most interested in current affairs and politics were particularly likely to choose bad news – but when asked, they said they preferred good news.

What we read and watch on the news can heighten our fears.

For example, our fear of terrorism is pronounced even though the number of people killed by terrorist groups in the last 20 years in the US is less than the number of Americans who died in their bathtubs during the same period, explains Baumeister in his book.

While worrying about a hypothetical but horrible situation can make us fearful, a small bad experience can have a disproportionate impact on our entire day.

Lasting effect of criticism

Randy Larsen, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St Louis, USA, reviewed evidence suggesting that negative emotions last longer than happy ones.

He found that we tend to spend more time thinking about bad events than good ones, which perhaps helps explain why awkward moments or critical comments can haunt us for years.

It can be hard not to brood over hurtful comments from a boyfriend, family member, or friend. “I think negative comments from people we love and trust have more impact than from strangers,” says Baumeister.

This is partly because we have expectations of how our friends and family should behave towards us.

In some cases, negative comments from loved ones can cause lasting mental wounds and resentment that can lead to the breakdown of relationships.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky, USA, found that relationships are rarely saved when partners ignore relationship problems to remain “passively loyal”.

“It’s not so much the good and constructive things that partners do or don’t do for each other that determine whether a relationship works, but rather the destructive things they do or don’t do in response to problems,” they said.

Another study, which followed couples for more than 10 years, showed that the degree to which they expressed negative feelings for each other in the first two years of marriage predicted whether they would break up — with higher levels of negativity among couples who divorced.

The negativity bias explains why many of us can be guilty of taking our relationships for granted when they’re going well – but quickly spot imperfections and even turn minor issues into bigger problems.

Criticism is also amplified when it arrives in large quantities, making social media a potential echo chamber for negativity.

Despite being the author of the best-selling album of 2019, singer Billie Eilish told the show breakfastfrom the BBC, which avoids looking at the comments.

“It was ruining my life,” she said. “The nicer things you do, the more people hate you. It’s crazy. It’s worse than ever.”

Pop star Dua Lipa and Nicola Roberts, a former member of Girls Aloud, are other examples of celebrities who have spoken out about the impact of so-called trolling.

Baumeister claims that we don’t have the ability to deal with negativity on social media because our brains have evolved to pay attention and warn us about a close community of hunter-gatherers rather than hundreds or thousands of strangers.

“So hearing negative things from a large number of people has to be devastating,” he says.

Of course, the impact of being trolled online or criticized by a friend varies from person to person.

Physical effects of negative comments

But receiving, internalizing and reinforcing any negative comments can increase stress, anxiety, frustration and worry, notes Lucia Macchia, a behavioral scientist and visiting researcher at the University of London School of Economics (LSE) in the UK.

“Dealing with these negative emotions has a huge impact on our bodies, as they can even create and exacerbate physical pain,” he adds.

Dozens of studies show, however, that people tend to look on the bright side as they age.

Scientists refer to this effect as “positivity bias” – and they believe we start remembering positive details more than negative information from middle age onwards.

Baumeister believes this is because we need to learn from failures and criticism in youth, but this need diminishes as we age.

However, negative comments can be harmful at any age, especially at times when we are particularly suggestible or vulnerable.

“When you’re already depressed, it’s harder to recover, so it might not be a good time to listen to negative comments,” says Baumeister.

How to protect yourself from the negative impacts of criticism

A hotly debated topic is whether people with certain personality types are more prone to negativity than others.

But a recent study found no “consistent evidence” of the relationship between one’s personality traits or political ideology and negativity bias.

“We are all sensitive to negative comments in the sense that there are no ‘stronger’ personality traits. Remembering that everyone gets negative comments can help us deal with them… and can be a good strategy to protect our own health. mental,” she adds.

“Another useful strategy could be to consider that comments are more linked to the person making the comments than the recipient.”

By recognizing negativity bias, we can nullify unwanted responses and even enjoy their benefits.

For example, Shelley Taylor, a professor of social psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US, has shown that women with breast cancer sometimes create optimistic but unrealistic beliefs to help them cope. .

These “positive illusions” are associated with mental and physical health benefits, suggesting they can help us center ourselves in times of need.

Taylor’s work has also shed light on a commonly used response to negativity called minimization, which is our ability to “attenuate, minimize, and even erase the impact of that event.”

For example, the cancer patients in Taylor’s study sometimes compared themselves to women who were worse off than they were, to make their problem seem smaller.

The fearless professional skydiver Felix Baumgartner may not be someone you think would need to use minimization techniques to face their fears.

But Michael Gervais, a psychologist who works with Olympic athletes, turned to these techniques to help Baumgartner achieve his goal of becoming the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.

According to interviews he gave, Baumgartner was afraid of getting trapped in his specially made suit.

Rather than viewing it negatively as a potential prison, Gervais taught him to visualize how the suit could turn him into a superhero, amplifying the benefits and lessening the drawbacks.

Using a combination of breathing techniques and a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Baumgartner was able to fulfill his goal and become the “Fearless Felix”, the “Fearless Felix”.

Few of us will share Baumgartner’s grand ambitions, but we can all learn from him.

By canceling out the negative and accentuating the positive, we can be more likely to achieve our dreams.

This text was originally published here.