BY ROBERT FUSELIER
Los Alamos

He who knows that he knows, doesn’t.
He who knows that he doesn’t know, does.

Variations of this bit of wisdom have been attributed to many wise elders from our past. The saying highlights a problem we all face: we are all biased. We think we have the answers, know the way, and understand the world and those around us. The reality, however, is that we don’t. We have but a small perspective of what reality is. Until we can admit this to ourselves, we are subject to appear, speak, and act as fools.

One of the most troubling biases is what modern psychology calls negativity bias. Studies have shown that we will focus on something we view as negative over something we see as neutral or positive. The result of this negativity bias is widespread within our versions of reality. Under its influence, we focus on tragedies and troubling news rather than on positive news, we let negative comments about someone override positive ones, and we’re subject to remember our failures over our successes.

One of the consequences of negativity bias is that we tend to see the world around us as more troubling than it is, which leaves us a good bit more anxious than we need to be. Through an evolutionary lens, this makes sense: it’s better to be alive and a bit more afraid than necessary than to be harmed or dead from failing to see a life-threatening danger. But living our lives reacting to unrecognized and/or misplaced anxiety does us no good either. Aside from making our lives much more unpleasant than necessary, anxiety is one step away from anger. There’s a lot of anger around us today.

If we’re honest, we can find ourselves heavily influenced by negative political ads rather than positive ones and are more willing to believe one false rumor over knowledge gained over years of a relationship. This is just another side effect of negativity bias. Negativity bias also persuades us to think that the intentions of someone performing a questionable act are not good and perhaps evil but view our intentions when we act in exactly the same way as either good or, at least, necessary. I’m sure some aspect of negativity bias can be found at the root of the teaching by Jesus regarding the logs and splinters in our eyes. If I recall correctly, the words he uses to address the person who’s unaware is “you fool”.

I think the most difficult consequence of negativity bias is the way it affects how the vast majority of us view ourselves. We remember more easily and more readily our failures and embarrassing moments than we do our successes and those actions that were helpful to others. Being able to critique ourselves is a good trait, but negativity bias can take it too far.

When I look back over my career as a veterinarian, it is those cases where I failed to save the life of a pet or meet the expectations of a client that stand out. Certain situations can evoke memories of embarrassing actions that I took 60 years ago. Negativity bias has a huge role as the gatekeeper to what memories come to mind for us. Again, it makes sense as a self-survival mechanism: it’s critical for us as members of a social species to minimize those acts that put us at risk of being ostracized from our social support groups. If we, however, fail to recognize this painful effect of negativity bias, we can spend our lives thinking of ourselves as failures.

As troubling as it might appear, negativity bias is part of our human nature. Ignoring it or trying to suppress it will do no good. My recommendation is to do what the wise elders from our past, and the psychologists from today, recommend. We all need to do some humble self-reflection, to get out our gloves and go to the gyms of our minds for what many refer to as a bit of “shadow boxing”. While I’m totally against beating up on one’s self, physically or mentally, the only thing that will be harmed by shadow boxing is the ego.