Bias in the brain?

[Lamb]

I was reading an article that stated that if we focused on too many negatives that our brain gets reinforced to lean toward the negative. This wasn't from a scientific paper. I'm mostly a happy person but I think I am realistic when looking at life in seeing both positive and negative. Are you negative or positive mostly and what do you focus on the most? How are you instructing your brain?

 

[MoreCoffee]

I was reading an article that stated that if we focused on too many negatives that our brain gets reinforced to lean toward the negative. This wasn't from a scientific paper. I'm mostly a happy person but I think I am realistic when looking at life in seeing both positive and negative. Are you negative or positive mostly and what do you focus on the most? How are you instructing your brain?

I suppose one can train one's will and conscience to take this or that side of a question but I am not convinced that taking a positive or taking a negative perspective can change external reality. If one is able to instruct one's brain as indicated in your post (I am not convinced that it works that way) external reality will remain as it was unchanged by the habitual perspective cultivated in one's brain.

 

[Lamb]

I'm not talking about whether the external reality is true or not but whether the brain believes it one way or another because we tend to focus on one or the other (positive or negative).

 

[MoreCoffee]

I'm not talking about whether the external reality is true or not but whether the brain believes it one way or another because we tend to focus on one or the other (positive or negative).

That's a difficult question to answer fully. Clearly reality is what God has created and the task of God's human creatures is to see reality as it is but human beings often have a distorted concept of what is real - the distortion coming from many sources sin among them. There's an excellent little book called Theology and Sanity by Frank Sheed which gives a helpful analysis of this matter.

 

[Lamb]

Yes, we have our own distorted reality and that's what this topic concerns. Do you agree that those who focus on the negative things in their own lives have trained their brains to seek out the negative and those who focus on the positive actually seek out the positive things in their lives?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Yes, we have our own distorted reality and that's what this topic concerns. Do you agree that those who focus on the negative things in their own lives have trained their brains to seek out the negative and those who focus on the positive actually seek out the positive things in their lives?

No, not really. I know some very positive people whose perspective on reality is very distorted indeed and I know some negative people who also have very distorted perspectives on reality. Distortion is not a matter of being positive or being negative, it is much more a matter of a corrupted view of reality and the source of the corruption (at its deepest root) is sin.

 

[Lamb]

Here is an article from Psychology Today on Negativity Bias: https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200306/our-brains-negative-bias

 

[Stravinsk]

I was reading an article that stated that if we focused on too many negatives that our brain gets reinforced to lean toward the negative. This wasn't from a scientific paper. I'm mostly a happy person but I think I am realistic when looking at life in seeing both positive and negative. Are you negative or positive mostly and what do you focus on the most? How are you instructing your brain?

Unless definitions and context are provided I find it difficult to answer the question, honestly. In terms of "looking at life" - positive can mean *whistling in the dark* as much as negative can mean *focusing on a void in a beautifully lit room*.

To answer a general question generally - I do not think any human's psychology and biases can be reduced to either catchall term - and usually not any, for that matter.

 

[Lamb]

Did you read the article I posted in the post above yours? It helps explain a bit more.

 

[Stravinsk]

I just have, and my answer remains the same - except that I will add that insofar as the article quoted is concerned, it too seems too simplistic and general to me in the conclusions it comes to on general "negative" or "positive".

To give an example which answers this simplicity that almost begs to be called pop psychology -

If I am criticized by someone who I don't know for something frivolous or for a reason I consider to be ultimately self serving or selfish on their part - this does not "stick in my brain" nor need 5+ positives from them or from other people I don't know to "make my world all balanced again".

However, if I am criticized by someone who I am close to and who's opinions matter to me and whom I respect - then this will have a greater impact on me - not only because of my relationship with them, but because their negative view of me in some respect actually matters to me and I'm not likely to blow it off.