Imagine that eleven people compliment you during a presentation, while only one person makes a small criticism. Which one stays on your mind on your way home? Most of the time, that one criticism.
You may quickly forget the kind words people said throughout the day. But that one sentence keeps replaying in your mind: “Was I really that bad?”, “Why did they say that?”, “Do the others think the same way?”
So why does our mind, among all the things that are going well, focus specifically on that one negative thing? One important reason for this is negativity bias. This concept refers to the tendency for negative events and information to have a stronger impact on our minds compared to positive ones (Baumeister et al., 2001). This tendency can be seen not only in memory, but also in areas such as attention, emotions, evaluations, and interpersonal relationships. There is an understandable evolutionary reason for this. Failing to notice a threat can be much more costly than perceiving a threat that is not actually there. For our ancestors, realizing too late that a sound coming from the bushes was actually a predator could have been a serious risk, while being unnecessarily startled was a much smaller cost. Today, the nature of threats has changed. Although criticism, rejection, an unanswered message, or uncertainty about the future may not pose a physical threat, our minds can still interpret them as important signals.
The Brain’s Alarm System
When we think something has gone wrong, we do not always think things through carefully before reacting. Sometimes our body and mind may begin to react before we fully understand what is happening. For example, when a friend speaks to you in a different tone than usual, you may feel a sense of unease. Even a delayed message on your phone can trigger the thought, “Is something wrong?” The amygdala also plays a role in this process; however, describing it simply as the “fear center” is considered an overly simplistic explanation today. The amygdala is part of a broader neural network involved in evaluating stimuli that are biologically and psychologically significant (LeDoux & Pine, 2016). However, after our initial reaction, we can begin to reconsider what happened: “Maybe they were tired,” “Maybe they didn’t mean the message that way,” or “Maybe I read too much into it.” In other words, our first reaction and reality are not always the same thing.
Negativity Bias in Everyday Life
We can notice negativity bias even in small moments of everyday life. Imagine that you have just left a job interview. You received a lot of positive feedback throughout the interview, but at the end, you were told, “You may need a little more experience in some areas.” When you get home, you may find yourself thinking about that sentence rather than the entire conversation: “Did they think I wasn’t good enough? Am I not going to get the job?” Yet that sentence was only a small part of the interview. A similar situation can occur in relationships. Alongside the attention and kind words you receive from your partner throughout the day, one hurtful comment can overshadow the other positive experiences. Even after the event is over, you may keep thinking, “Why did they say that?” or “Is there something wrong with our relationship?” The fact that negative information takes up more space in our minds does not necessarily mean that it is more important. Our minds may simply be more inclined to process information that signals a potential problem (Baumeister et al., 2001).
Mental Health and the Possibility of Change
It is normal for all of us to get stuck on something negative from time to time. Negativity bias is not, by itself, a psychological disorder. However, the way negative information is processed can become more pronounced in some psychological difficulties. Research has particularly examined how, in anxiety disorders, people may pay more attention to threatening stimuli and interpret ambiguous situations as more threatening (Gober et al., 2021). For example, when someone does not reply to your message for several hours, you might quickly turn to possibilities such as, “Are they angry with me?” or “Do they not want to talk to me anymore?” instead of thinking, “They are probably busy.” The issue is not simply that a negative thought appears; it also matters how quickly the mind accepts that thought as reality and how much room it leaves for other possibilities.
So, is it possible to change this?
The fact that negativity bias has an evolutionary basis does not mean that we cannot change it. The brain is a system that learns from experience and can change. Neuroplasticity refers to the nervous system’s ability to undergo structural and functional changes in connection with learning and environmental conditions (Kolb et al., 2011). The goal is not to never have negative thoughts. A more functional approach is to create a small distance between ourselves and the first thought that comes to mind. Cognitive reappraisal can help us change our emotional response by reconsidering the meaning we assign to an event (Gross, 2015). For example, instead of thinking, “They criticized me, so I must be a failure,” being able to say, “I can take this criticism into account, but one criticism does not define my entire performance,” does not mean denying the negative experience. It means placing it back into the bigger picture.
Perhaps the fact that our minds turn toward negativity so quickly is not actually working against us. Our brains function as systems that are sensitive to detecting potential threats. It is only the nature of those threats that has changed. Once, a sound in the bushes was important. Today, an unanswered message, a criticism, a job interview, or uncertainty about the future can trigger a similar threat evaluation in our minds. So, the next time you notice yourself forgetting all the good things from the rest of your day and getting stuck on one negative experience, you can ask yourself: “Am I evaluating what is actually happening right now, or is my mind preparing for a possible threat?” Because the first thing our minds tell us is not always the whole truth. Sometimes, it is simply a first assumption trying to protect us.
Kaynakça
- Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of general psychology, 5(4), 323-370.
- Gober, C. D., Lazarov, A., & Bar-Haim, Y. (2021). From cognitive targets to symptom reduction: Overview of attention and interpretation bias modification research. Evidence Based Mental Health, 24(1), 42-46.
- Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological inquiry, 26(1), 1-26.
- Kolb, B., Muhammad, A., & Gibb, R. (2011). Searching for factors underlying cerebral plasticity in the normal and injured brain. Journal of Communication Disorders, 44(5), 503-514.
- LeDoux, J. E., & Pine, D. S. (2016). Using neuroscience to help understand fear and anxiety: a two-system framework. American journal of psychiatry, 173(11), 1083-1093.