Someone says nine wonderful things about you and one negative thing. Which one are you still thinking about hours later? Probably the negative one. Bad experiences, criticism and unpleasant news seem to have more power over us than equally good things. And it turns out there is a reason for that.
Psychologists call it the negativity effect — our tendency to give more weight and attention to what goes wrong than to what goes right. It influences what we remember, the risks we take, the decisions we make and even how we judge other people. We will often work harder to avoid something bad than we will to gain something equally good.
John Tierney has researched this phenomenon and explains why negativity has such a powerful hold on us — and, more importantly, what we can do about it. John is a journalist and co-author of The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It (https://amzn.to/30Gn3EQ). Listen as he reveals how the negativity effect shows up in relationships, work, parenting and everyday decisions — and how understanding it can keep the bad from overpowering all the good.
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RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE:
Amazon link for John Tierney’s book, The Power of Bad: https://link.amazon/B0gA9ubyZ
