Overcome Negativity Bias and Declinism (Transcend Cognitive Biases Series)

Negativity bias is a fundamental feature of the human psyche, a kind of primal alarm system that makes us pay more attention to and give more weight to negative information than to positive or neutral information. Its roots are deeply embedded in our evolutionary history. For our ancestors, survival was not about maximizing pleasure but about avoiding death. Overlooking a potential reward, like a source of fruit, was an inconvenience. Overlooking a potential threat, like a predator in the bushes, was fatal. Therefore, the brains of those who were exceptionally good at detecting and remembering dangers were the ones that survived. This has left us with a brain that is essentially Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.

This bias manifests in various aspects of daily life. You might receive ten compliments and one piece of criticism, yet it is the criticism that you ruminate on for hours, or even days. In learning, we adapt our behavior more quickly to avoid pain or punishment than we do to seek out rewards.

The modern media is a masterful exploiter of this bias: news outlets know that stories about crises, conflicts, and corruption are far more effective at capturing our attention than stories about peace or progress, leading to the adage 'if it bleeds, it leads.' In our social interactions, a single awkward moment or negative comment can overshadow an otherwise pleasant evening.

The issue with this bias is that, we are what we eat, but also what we repeatedly think and do. So, with time, we tend to start seeing the world and life itself in a more negative way 'than we should'.

Declinism is a specific cognitive bias that arises from this fertile ground of negativity. It is the pervasive feeling that society is in a state of irreversible decline, that the past was inherently better, and that the future will be worse. When someone sighs and refers to 'the good old days,' they are very likely expressing declinism. This feeling, however compelling, is often an illusion crafted by several other psychological mechanisms working together.

First is the bias of rosy retrospection. Our memory is not a perfect recording device: it is a curator that selectively edits the past. We tend to remember the highlights of a bygone era -the iconic music, the sense of community, the simplicity - while conveniently filtering out the hardships, injustices, and daily anxieties. We don't feel the fear of nuclear war during the Cold War with the same intensity we feel today's political tensions. We forget the limitations faced by marginalized groups and the lack of medical treatments for now-curable diseases. The past becomes a simplified, romanticized museum exhibit, while the present remains a messy, chaotic construction site.

Second, the availability heuristic plays a crucial role. We judge the state of the world based on how easily examples come to mind. Our 24/7 news cycles and social media feeds provide a constant, readily available stream of vivid, negative information about current events. We have no such live feed for the problems of the 1950s or 1850s. Because examples of today's crises are so immediate and emotionally charged, we overestimate their prevalence and uniqueness, concluding that the world is more dangerous and troubled than ever before.

This field is programmed to help you overcome these biases and maybe see the world as a better place. Use as you wish.