“The bad stuff is easier to believe. You ever notice that?” says Julia Roberts’ character, Vivian, in Pretty Woman (1990)
In a world filled with a 24-hour negative news cycle, the stress of a rapidly growing “third wave” of COVID-19 and a population that reports increasing levels of fatigue and unmanageable stress, many of us have experienced recurring negative emotions, thoughts, and moods. The Couillard Group recently had the opportunity to sit in on a virtual seminar with Dana Couillard (brother to Hal), a well-known human performance coach (www.rippledynamics.com).
Dana’s presentation focused on the growing body of research demonstrating how we are geared to see and focus on (and consequently buy into) negativity at the expense of positivity. Research shows that negative experiences are identified more readily and have a greater and longer-lasting effect than positive ones. This is known as “positive-negative asymmetry”, or “the negativity bias ”.
If you haven’t already seen this, the popular TED talk by Alison Ledgerwood (click here to view) presents the idea of “negativity bias” in a very approachable way and asks some insightful questions about our ability to make a conscious choice to have a positive perspective versus a negative one.
Choosing to be positive can be significantly harder than choosing to be negative in the moment for many of us. The positive outlook and perspective requires effort and conscious intention. The good news is that this positive intention is like a muscle that can be exercised and become stronger over time, allowing us to assess our emotions more accurately, and reduce the asymmetry between our positive and negative reactions.
When we choose to focus on the positive, it doesn’t just impact our mood – emotional contagions have been shown, repeatedly, to affect those around us both professionally and personally. (More on this in our next blog.)
We hope you find the positive.