Our brain is programmed to perceive dangers and risks more strongly than positives. Research suggests that about 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts are processed in the human brain daily. However, research also says that 80% of the thoughts that go through our mind are either negative or repetitive.
Even if 397 things go well in a day, it is often that one single thing that didn't go perfectly, that one mistake, that one embarrassing remark, that particularly stands out and stays in our memory.
In the scientific literature, this distorting power of the negative is referred to by several terms: negativity bias, negativity dominance, or simply negativity effect. Whatever you want to call it, it refers to a general human tendency to be more influenced by negative events and emotions than by positive ones.
Why do we have so many negative thoughts?
This tendency to pay more attention to bad news is likely an evolutionary adaptation to protect us from harm, as we need to be able to quickly recognize threat signals to avoid them. Only, in our reality today, there is no lion around the corner wanting to attack us.
How do you deal with it?
We can counteract the tendency of negativity by focusing on the positive to gain a more balanced perspective. However, due to the disproportionate weight our brain assigns to negative events, this balance does not mean a ratio of 50 to 50. John Gottman and Robert Levenson tried to find out what the "magic ratio" is. And they found it! The magic ratio is five to one. This means we need to ensure that we have five times more small, frequent positive experiences than negative ones to achieve balance.
Another way would be: Stay busy!
Keeping our mind occupied is a great way to combat negative emotions. Furthermore, we manage to stay active and keep our plans running. We remain positive, hopeful, and motivated. When we occupy our mind, we also have no time to deal with bad feelings like worry, sadness, loneliness, anger, or jealousy. It's like being in a tunnel. As long as you keep going, you always get closer to the light.
