DO YOU HAVE NEGATIVITY BIAS?

How we can train our brains to have more positive thoughts

There are some people among us who are born optimists. They are upbeat about life, even when things aren’t going their way. They see difficulties as challenges, and problems as opportunities. They say things like, ‘When one door closes, another one opens,’ and, ‘Every cloud has a silver lining.’ I am not one of those people. But, then again, most of us aren’t.

There has been much research into what scientists call the negativity bias. It’s the idea that we’re hardwired to be negative thinkers because in primitive times this was helpful: it stopped us from looking at a lion and thinking, ‘How beautiful.’ But nowadays it’s not so great.

In their new book, The Power Of Bad, psychologists John Tierney and Roy F Baumeister explain the negativity bias as ‘the universal tendency for negative events and emotions to affect us more strongly than

positive ones’. It’s why we feel the pain of criticism more than we enjoy the pleasure of praise, and why the impact of bad events lasts longer than the impact of good ones.

I find this reassuring to read. More often than not, colleagues will say nice things to me, but one piece of bad feedback and I’ll ruminate over it for months. I also have a tendency to catastrophise. If a friend doesn’t reply to a message, I assume it’s because I’ve done something wrong; if my partner hasn’t come home when I expect him, it’s definitely because he’s in a ditch somewhere.

If this doesn’t sound healthy, that’s because it’s not. A study released last year by Boston University School of Medicine found that pessimism is bad for your overall health. Researchers who analysed data from more than 70,000 people found that the most optimistic among them had an 11-15% longer lifespan, and far greater odds of reaching 85 years old, compared with negative thinkers. Another study cited in The Power Of Bad found optimists were more likely to vote, donate to charity and volunteer in their community. Not surprisingly, they tend to be happier, too. But it’s not all bad for the not-so-positive. ‘By seeing the negativity effect and overriding our innate responses,’ write Tierney and Baumeister, ‘we can break destructive patterns [and] think more effectively about the future.’

So how do you override these innate responses? Can you really train your brain to be more positive? My natural instinct is to think probably not. But in an attempt at optimism, I do my best to find out…

1 IDENTIFY YOUR NEGATIVITY BIAS

Psychological therapist Kim Lyons tells me the first step is to acknowledge negative thinking because not everyone realises they’re doing it. ‘It’s very important to validate this experience, because we all have negative thoughts,’ she says. Dr Roberta Babb, a clinical psychologist and psychodynamic psychotherapist, agrees, and advises me to identify ‘thought traps’. Am I ignoring the positives, or catastrophising? Am I overgeneralising, or thinking in all-or-nothing terms? ‘The type of thought traps may vary depending on our mood and situation,’ says Dr Babb, ‘but it’s helpful to identify what type of negative thinking we veer towards.’

2 LABEL NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

To take more control over the negative voice inside my head, Dr Babb says I should personalise and externalise it. ‘Give it a name or image that you can separate from yourself,’ she says. Lyons adds, ‘If something has upset you and you keep going over it in your head, give it a label. Say you call it “Pixie”. When it arrives in your head, notice it for what it is (“Oh, it’s the Pixie story”), then bring yourself back.’

3 WORK ON YOUR SELF-TALK

I learn that there are many ways to practise positive self-talk, but in the most part it comes down to speaking to yourself in the same way you’d speak to your friends. I know this, but it’s always useful to be reminded. Here are some other positive practices:

WRITE IT DOWN ASK YOURSELF QUESTIONS

Once you’ve noticed your negativity bias, it’s a lot easier to challenge it. Dr Babb tells me I can catch negative thoughts by asking questions such as, ‘What evidence is there that my understanding of what is happening is accurate?’ Or, ‘Is there another way I could look at this?’ and, ‘What other reasons could explain what is happening?’

PREPARE COPING STATEMENTS

A technique given in The Power Of Bad is to ‘prepare yourself with coping statements: simple sentences that can be repeated in your mind to overwhelm the irrational negative thoughts. The statements should be short and realistic (“You will be fine/you’re strong/you’ve got this”). The mere act of repeating words is calming, as monks have long known.’

4 REMEMBER TO BE GRATEFUL

There have been countless studies into the effectiveness of gratitude journals. They have been linked to reduced anxiety and depression, better physical health and more long-term satisfaction with life. I start mine in a note on my phone, and quickly get into the habit of adding a few things to it on my journey into work each day. ‘Engaging in gratitude practices may help you restore your attention to the positive events and experiences in your life,’ says Dr Babb. Given that I still find things to write when I’ve had a rough day, I know she’s right.

5 ENGAGE IN POSITIVE PRACTICES

There are ‘positivity tools’ that you can use to help counteract the negativity bias and train yourself into being more optimistic. Dr Babb advises ‘engaging in three positive strokes for every negative stroke you give yourself’. It means that if you find yourself saying something like, ‘I’m no good at this,’ you must then tell yourself at least three positive things to balance it out. With this in mind, I create a ‘positivity folder’ in my work inbox, where I start saving any emails that have some good feedback or a kind note in them. Re-reading these is a great antidote to the negative voice inside my head.

6 LEARN TO BE MINDFUL

Both psychologists tell me that mindfulness can help reduce the negativity bias, because it increases awareness of our emotions and promotes a sense of acceptance. Certain mindful exercises can help banish negative thinking, whether that’s worry or self-criticism. ‘For example, the 5-4-3-2-1 method helps ground you when you’re experiencing a negativity spiral,’ says Lyons. ‘It helps you take yourself away from it by naming five things you can see, four you can hear, three you can feel, two you can smell and one you can taste.’

7 DON’T TRY TOO HARD TO FIGHT IT

In the end, the more you try to block out negative thoughts, the harder it becomes. ‘If I said to you: “Don’t think of a pink elephant,” you’ll think of a pink elephant,’ says Lyons. ‘It’s the same with negativity. It’s just about not feeding into it. Instead, I tell patients to view their negative thoughts as leaves in a stream, clouds floating along in the sky or [my personal favourite] bubbles in a glass of Champagne. Allow them to come up to the surface – and then disappear.’

‘I ask my patients to write down on Post-it notes what they would say to a distressed friend who was catastrophising, then get them to read them aloud to themselves,’ says Lyons.