Understanding Negativity Bias: Why Your Brain is Hardwired for Negative Thoughts

(approx four minute read)

Discover the psychology behind the negativity bias and learn effective strategies to manage negative thoughts. Understand why our brains are hardwired for negativity and how to overcome it.

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It’s estimated we have around 6,000 thoughts a day. That’s about 250 thoughts an hour. 

According to the National Science Foundation, 80% of our thoughts are negative - and 95% of our thoughts are repetitive. 

“The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones,” says psychologist Rick Hanson in the Greater Good Magazine. 

The good news is that there’s a term for this unfortunate way of thinking: the negativity bias.

What is the negativity bias?

According to The Decision Lab, ‘the negativity bias is a cognitive bias that results in adverse events having a more significant impact on our psychological state than positive events. Negativity bias occurs even when adverse events and positive events are of the same magnitude, meaning we feel negative events more intensely’.

Neuropsychologist and New York Times best-selling author Hanson believes the brain is hard-wired to think negatively. Hanson says, ‘as we evolved over millions of years, dodging sticks (threats) and chasing carrots (food), it was a lot more important to notice, react to, and remember sticks than it was for carrots’.

Basically, many many years ago, our ancestors lived in difficult environments. They had to 

Managing negative thoughts, according to a psychotherapist

Psychotherapist, Kate Hogan, said: 

1. “Ask yourself this, ‘what if things worked out’ and allow yourself to consider those possibilities.

2. “Also, recognise our brains are wired to protect so looking for the negative is part of that and part of being HUMAN. 

3. “We can learn to override that instinct through practice. Proactively look for good facts and experiences. When you notice something good, let yourself feel it and feel good about it. Then practise it, daily. Whenever you have a moment. 

4. When something good happens to you, take it in, think about it for a period of time, don’t just let the positive emotion pass. 

Everyday examples of negativity bias

1. You need to have five good interactions with your significant other to counteract the stain of one negative encounter

2. People apparently work much harder to avoid losing £100 than to gain the same amount of money

3. Painful experiences live long in the memory vs pleasurable ones

4. We recall insults better than praise 

5. We tend to learn more from negative experiences vs positive 

6. You have a meeting with your boss who gives you 18 compliments, and one critique. The one critique is the thing you remember.

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Negative bias in the brain

There’s a load of studies that have been conducted to get more brain focused evidence on the negativity bias. It turns out the frontal cortex (the decision making, problem solving part of the brain) and amygdala (the processing centre for emotions) react more strongly to negative stimuli vs positive stimuli.  

Psychologist John Cacioppo has carried out a number of studies on this topic. In one study, participants were shown pictures of either positive, negative, or neutral images. The researchers then observed electrical activity in the brain. Negative images produced a much stronger response in the cerebral cortex than positive or neutral images.

Personal Stories: Dealing with negative thoughts

‘I once went to a talk called: How to Overcome Negative Thinking. I had just gone through a difficult break up and felt like everything I thought was negative,” says Jack Staples. 

“At the end of the talk the scientist opened up questions to the floor. I, and I think everyone in the audience, was expecting to have had the answer about how to overcome negative thinking. Thankfully, one woman put up her hand and asked. 

“The scientists simply said: “now you know your brain is hardwired to think that way, focus on that and accept the negative thoughts, don’t fight them.” 

“Simple, right.”

Feel better knowing you are hardwired to think negatively? We hope so.