Sadly most people unconsciously choose the Bad News first, but there is a reason for that. Paraphrasing from a Psychology Today article on “Why We Love Bad News,” they said “we humans tend to seek out news of dramatic, negative events. Psychologists and neuroscientists say that our brains evolved in a hunter-gatherer environment where anything novel or dramatic, like your friend Zrrrg just got eaten by a Sabre-Tooth tiger, had to be attended to immediately for survival. So while we no longer defend ourselves against saber-toothed tigers, our brains have not caught up.”
Part of the slow progress in changing this instinctual survival pattern of looking for the problems in life is the media keeping negativity front and center in our lives. What we see the most, we think most and we then share the most. Both happiness and negativity are contagious but if we are being fed on negativity that is what we offer others.
The article goes on to say that reality is very different than what is being reported by the news. Research showed that in local communities of under 5000 the local news reporting is almost always good, with a tiny percentage of news that is bad on the police report and often never something truly dramatic.
But city news of populations over 1 million have enough dramatic events and bad news that a news channel can dedicate and entire hour to it rehashing some kind of catastrophe even if they have to milk one negative event for the whole hour. And if they can’t come up with something terrible out of a million people in that city, that day, they just report on national or international news, which widens the playing field to billions of people and life situations. Invariably, they can come up with something they can sensationalize to get you to watch them and their commercials. And if your local city news still isn’t enough to get you worked up, it is always followed by national/international news that for sure has some really bad news that they deliver with the highest degree of appearing seriousness that leaves you with the sense of “if they say it, it must be the way it is.” But just keep in mind that in the average news show there are on an average 17 negative stories to every one, “feel good” or “happiness” piece. Yikes! They can’t be serious.
The reality is that negative events are but a tiny percentage of human reality but are focused on by news and social media because we are genetically and psychologically programmed to focus on it and will tune in more when there is sensational news than if they just gave the “hey everyone is OK!” report.
The truth is we are safer and better off now than at any time in the history of the planet, but what we share more often than not is the .00001% anomaly when things and people go wrong 90% of the time.
The article went on to say, when people hear enough bad news day after day, month after month that they can do nothing about they enter a state some psychologists call “learned helplessness.” A helpless person (even a thrashing around angry person) will do what they are told if the authority (media) tells them that they will be safer or richer. Following your own inner happiness never gets much press and really tries to be swept under the rug. The choices you make with your vote and your wallet when you are happy and secure, and feel life is good, tend to be very different than the ones you make when you see the world as a scary place.
Most people live their entire lives and never directly experience a murder or living in a war zone, or be party to political and corporate corruption, or experience first-hand a famine or flood, a tornado, or the heart break of Psoriasis or the need for Viagra, but they feel like those are more the norm in life than having a happy life because it is what is front and center in the media.
The conclusion of the article is good news. Psychologist agree that we are capable of changing this pattern of seeing the glass half full of terrorists. To do this we have to change our behaviors. We will need to look for the good not the bad, what we are for, not what we are against, and make that what we share in the world. They even gave a statistic as to how to have a happy relationship, 5 positives for every 1 negative makes a happy marriage, 5 positives for every 1 negative makes a happy life.
How to Make a Difference Now-
The Global 40 Day Happiness Challenge!
You can be part of the solution right now!
Starting today I am beginning another 40 Day Happiness Challenge, but this time it is Global.
How it works: Just post one thing happening in the world, i.e. something that you found out about other countries during the Olympics, amazing people around the globe doing great things, incredible pictures of this garden of Eden we live in, a video that inspires you, etc., that makes you happy today on Facebook using the #globalhappinesschallenge.
Do this for 40 days and then we will share the results. To be one of those things happening in the world that makes you happy, share this on Facebook with everyone you know and if you know people in other countries get them to be part of this! This is the beginning of something big! THE GLOBAL 40 DAY HAPPINESS CHALLENGE!
Click here to follow the Global Happiness Challenge on our Facebook page. Let’s start a movement!