Cognitive Biases - Negativity
In my copious free time (and for probably the first time in three decades I use that word correctly rather than sarcastically), I want to do a deep dive on cognitive biases. My purpose with this series will be to: educate myself more thoroughly, provide an introduction to those who may not have encountered these ideas, and draw what connection there might be to change management, leadership, and resiliency. I’ll also include a set of reference links in case you want to explore the topic more. Finally, I plan to tackle these more or less in the order that drives my curiosity and current mood so as usual the topics will be peppered with personal reflection and anecdotes.
And with that as an introduction, let’s start with what’s on my mind right now: negativity bias.
Negativity bias is “the notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful/traumatic events) have a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things.”
This one is interestingly sciencey. The theory is that the brain evolved to pay more attention to negative things than positive ones. For our own survival, it’s super important that we pay attention to possibly dangerous or damaging inputs, not nearly as important that we smell the flowers or enjoy the view. To quickly summarise the psychology literature, when we see a negative thing, we have a stronger, more powerful and lasting physical reaction to it than we do to a positive thing. This physical response is both in our brains (increased electrical activity) and our body (increased adrenaline and commensurate upticks in breath rate, pulse, muscle clenching, and so on).
The negativity bias contributes to many seemingly unrelated human behaviours. Why do people like dangerous sports or scary movies? They are far more memorable. Why do people slow down driving past a car accident? We literally can’t help ourselves; The brain wants to spend time analysing the bad thing. Why can our boss or partner tell us we’re awesome 10 times and the only thing we remember is that one time he said something critical? We write the negative experience into memory more strongly than the positive ones.
Now there is IMHO a bit of hokum around the magnitude of this bias. I think we can immediately dispense with the pseudo-science, numerical recommendation to “Do 5 positive things to counteract 1 negative one and you’ll be happy!” We’re all different. Some folks are inevitably more susceptible to the negativity bias, others less so, and it will no doubt come down to temperament and experience along with a biological something something. But, as this is one of the more undisputed, consistently replicable cognitive biases in both real world and lab settings, we can and should proactively work to counteract it in both ourselves and others.
The implications for a change programme are pretty obvious. Leaders and influencers must be fully cognizant that all stakeholders are likely to hear messages they don’t like far more accurately and strongly than positive ones. Accuracy is important here. Positive messaging is likely to garner less attention and therefore be more subject to interpretation and loss of detail. Negative messaging will pull the focus required for full comprehension, but the response will also be strong and negative. Mistakes can amplify in people’s minds while successes will be taken far less seriously. Negative information will travel rapidly by every possible channel both de jure and de facto, while positive information must be delivered repeatedly to make any impression at all.
Some ideas to combat negativity bias in a change programme:
Deliver consistent, clear and repetitious communication with stakeholders as an opportunity to repeatedly draw attention to BAU and positive stories. It is the banging away at the simple small things that will somewhat counterbalance the delivery of bad news.
Bundle bad news with several pieces of positive information.
Along the same lines, reframe negative information whenever possible. For example, “The project is late” versus “The project surfaced additional customer needs which we feel are important to include so we are changing the schedule.”
Work with each highly impacted individual to coach through identifying all the positive aspects of the change. However, respect their identification of the negative impact as a real threat. To the extent possible, equip them to ‘defend themselves against the threat.’ It’s like teaching someone bear behaviour before sending them off into the woods. It doesn’t make the bears go away, but it does reduce fear, increases the hikers circle of control, and makes a bad encounter less probable or impactful.
At the individual level, the recommendations to counteract the negativity bias largely come down to green framing and bearing witness. Break the cycle of negative thinking by revisiting a negative thought and converting it into a less threatening one, intervene in your own negative self-talk, and finally make a point of creating routines which focus your attention on positive events, experiences and outcomes.
When you start to unpack it, a good fraction of the ‘change resistance’ we talk about is actually people simply doing what humans do: focus more on the negative than the positive to protect themselves from lions. And our (my) current obsession with the news? Well, it’s not laziness or distractibility or lack of focus. The news is objectively speaking right now to a real, existential threat. It’s a car crash of global proportions. Knowing that, we can start to build routines in our lives to reduce the negative flood of information and tamper the impulse to check back daily, hourly, constantly. “I don’t need it, it’s not going to help me, and I am writing into my memory so many bad things it’ll take a month of Sundays to breathe easily again.” Focus on the cat, the taste of good coffee, the clear air, the beauty of friendships, the pleasure of a hot shower.
It’s actually a good day.
“For many, negative thinking is a habit which, over time, becomes an addiction.” ~ Peter McWilliams
Wikipedia - Negativity Bias
Psychology Today - Our Brain’s Negative Bias
Healthline - What Is Negativity Bias, and How Does It Affect You?
PositivePsychology.com - What Is The Negativity Bias and How Can it be Overcome?
Very Well Mind - What is the Negativity Bias?
Would you like to participate in a Resiliency Seed on green framing? Please join me for a 15 minute Zoom Thursday, 11 June at 9:30am.
