Don’t Let Negativity Distract You

Life can seem difficult at times. Often, it’s because we tend to focus on negative things and ignore the good.

Looking back on sporting events, such as football tournaments or the Olympics, usually attracts more focus on what went wrong at the expense of what went right.

It was said that when a very smart person was described as that ‘chubby genius,’ the reaction was to focus on the adjective ‘chubby’ rather than the much more powerful description of ‘genius.’

This person shouldn’t feel too bad. Negative events, feelings, and thoughts tend to impact us more than positive ones. We’re hard-wired that way.

Astonishingly, when we experience two events that have equal intensity, we’ll get stuck on the negative rather than the positive.

Negativity bias, a type of unconscious bias, is a psychological phenomenon.

Unconscious bias is when we make judgements or decisions on the basis of our prior experience, our own personal deep-seated thought patterns, assumptions, or interpretations, and we are not aware that we are doing it.

These can be influenced by our background, personal experiences, societal stereotypes, and cultural context. It is not just about gender, ethnicity, or other visible diversity characteristics like height, body weight, names, and many other things that can also trigger unconscious bias.”

Negativity is a remarkably complex aspect of negativity bias because we don't tend to notice ourselves attaching to the negative aspects of any given situation, which makes it more difficult to identify or deal with.

It’s easy to identify with how we can get wound up by one ‘hater’ who pops up in our social media feed regardless of the many positive comments we could be enjoying.

Negativity bias has a pernicious power; negative experiences disproportionately affect us rather than positive ones.

We must strive to not let the negative people spoil our day. Mahatma Gandhi put it well when he said, “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”

If we are in a group of people, we will be familiar with one or more, usually loudmouthed and self-opinionated individuals, who are trying to spread their negativity.

You and your colleagues might have finished that day still feeling down because none of you are able to forget about the negative comments, even if the day had actually been pretty good.

We shouldn’t let the perpetrators of negativity succeed. Actress Shirley MacLaine was spot on when she said, "Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power."

Negativity bias can also affect things outside our natural personality. It can affect our perceptions of people and decision-making. It can make us focus on or reinforce the negative aspects of someone’s character, resulting in us expecting the worst of them or seeing them in a broadly negative light.

We must not lose sight that not everything negative is bad. Assuming someone’s intentions are negative is a common way that arguments and misunderstandings occur.

Being positive is a powerful force for good, but like all things done to the extreme, positive thinking does have a down side.

We can use it to distract from things that need to be resolved. We might create a false happy persona that sees our real personality drift further and further away.

Imposed positivity can also mean we miss out on the necessary skills that our darker emotions can offer. Anger helps us with boundaries, and sadness helps us to let go.

There are benefits in both positive and negative mindsets, and we need to find a happy medium of optimism and pessimism. Don’t let negativity grind you down or hold you back, but sometimes a healthy dose of negativity can help avoid unexpected pitfalls.

Ian Garner is a retired Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI) and the Institute of Directors (FIoD).

Ian is a board member of Maggie’s Yorkshire. Maggie’s provides emotional and practical cancer support and information in centres across the UK and online, with their centre in Leeds based at St James’s Hospital.

He is the founder and director of Practical Solutions Management, a strategic consulting practice, and is skilled in developing strategy and providing strategic direction, specialising in business growth and leadership.