February 9, 2012 Negativity comes naturally to us; is there a
lesson here for more effective persuasion? People are fond of
saying "try to be more positive." When I hear that, I often
smile to myself thinking that the speaker doesn't realize the
irony in her implicit acknowledgement that there's really
nothing to be positive about so we've got to instead muster a
good attitude. Well, it turns out that from a neuro-
psychological standpoint, that's pretty close to the truth.
According to this article from Psychology Today, we are all
programmed with a "negativity bias." This negativity bias - bad
emotions are more powerful and longlasting than "positive" ones
- is what helped keep the species alive back in the caveman
days. Fear is our most powerful and evolutionary important
emotion because it helped us avoid threats and danger that
enabled us to pass our genes along to the next generation. The
negativity bias is related to this in that it helps us remember
the bad experiences longer and more vividly than the