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Hi Nance, I hear you got a high paying job. Nance: Yeah, it doesn't matter because we're all gonna die soon. NEGATIVE NANCY THREAD --poll included

are you a negative nance

  • yes

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • no

    Votes: 5 45.5%
  • sometimes

    Votes: 5 45.5%
  • something else

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    11
I feel my inspiration is running out for the day. This will be my last thread today. So what's this thread about? Well about being a negative nancy.
I'm a negative nancy. Several people also told me this at work. I dislike change and even when something good happens I somehow manage to find flaws, bitch about it and turn it into something negative. I'm also the most pessimistic person ever. I think it's just the way my brain is wired.
How about you? Are you a negative nancy?
 

Humdinger

Member
Most brains are wired to be negative. As the saying goes, negativity is like velcro to the brain, and positivity is like teflon. Our brains evolved to notice, imagine, see, and focus on the negative more than the positive. Estimates of how much more "sticky" negative perceptions are versus positive ones range from 3 times to 11 times. It's called the negativity bias. It exists because the cavemen who noticed, imagined, saw, and focused on the potentially negative things in their environment (e.g., tigers who want to eat them) were more likely to survive than the Mary Poppins types.

So we're all Negative Nancies, to some degree. Some more than others, sure.

I can be pretty negative and cynical if I just let myself drift. I work at being realistically positive, though, because although negativity had survival value way back then, now it usually just makes you miserable.
 
Most brains are wired to be negative. As the saying goes, negativity is like velcro to the brain, and positivity is like teflon. Our brains evolved to notice, imagine, see, and focus on the negative more than the positive. Estimates of how much more "sticky" negative perceptions are versus positive ones range from 3 times to 11 times. It's called the negativity bias. It exists because the cavemen who noticed, imagined, saw, and focused on the potentially negative things in their environment (e.g., tigers who want to eat them) were more likely to survive than the Mary Poppins types.

So we're all Negative Nancies, to some degree. Some more than others, sure.

I can be pretty negative and cynical if I just let myself drift. I work at being realistically positive, though, because although negativity had survival value way back then, now it usually just makes you miserable.
I also think it gets worse with age. The more years I have under my belt I seem to become even more negative.
 

Humdinger

Member
I also think it gets worse with age. The more years I have under my belt I seem to become even more negative.

I was more negative when I was younger. I'm more easy going, relaxed, and upbeat now. Some of that is due to change in nutrition, another part to change in life circumstances, and another to just trying to gradually work on my own cynicism/negativity.

I still get plenty of negative thoughts, but I don't take them as seriously anymore, and I don't buy into them as much. I've also learned not to fight them or "try to be more positive," since that backfires, at least for me. I treat it sort of like junk mail or spam from my brain. I try to accept it as something my brain will generate, because that's what brains do, but I don't need to pay it much attention or take it seriously. Sometimes I do better at this than others. I still get into sour moods now and then.
 
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