Some time ago there was an experiment by Brickman et al (1971). Brickman interviewed three groups of people: group one were recent lottery winners, group two had recently been paralysed in an accident and group three had suffered no major life events such as those by group one and two.
Interestingly and against popular belief today, the lottery winners reported no greater happiness than the other two groups. Why? Habituation. The initial burst of pleasure the lottery winners felt didn’t last long and the individuals quickly returned to what they had been before the lottery win. Ironically, the only lasting effects from the lottery winners were the negative ones. On the flip side, the accident victims were much slower to adapt to their fate – they didn’t habituate. The accident victims continued to compare their current situation with what they had, an effect, not present in the lottery winners. Simply this experiment found that bad is stronger than good things.
In another experiment, participants had to play a game where they either won, or lost money. Similarly, in this experiment, losing the money (even though it wasn’t there’s) had a stronger impact than winning it.
You see, apart from a few exceptions, negative, or bad situations are stronger than good ones. Negative information requires more processing and contributes more strongly to the final impression we have of a person, place or situation. It even goes so far that learning something bad about a new acquaintance carries more weight than learning something good. Think about it.
You meet someone and they seem nice. You find out things about that person and slowly the positive profile grows. Then you find out something bad. What happens?
I started to reflect on how this applies to me. When I experience something good or I great, I celebrate it – no question. But it’s true that the effects don’t last anywhere near as long as when I experience something bad. Celebrate at night, back to work in morning. Give myself a pat on the back, then back to the task. Experience something bad, and a week later I’m still questioning it.
I see this in others also. Whether that be a redundancy, a bad break up or a serious accident, the effects of these experiences last so much longer than say, a new job, getting married or buying a house.
So what can we do with this knowledge? A few things actually.
Firstly, be mindful of this. Make an effort to take time out to celebrate the good and allow good to have lasting effects, be mindful of habituation and learn how savour the good. Think about not only what you’re experiencing now but the difference between the now and the before.
Secondly, the literature says that good only triumphs bad in numbers, so try and increase the numbers. Each week, take time out to identify three good things that happened in your week. Write them down and soak them up. This activity is shown to boost mood and hopefully, will go some way to equalising bad and good.
So while we need bad, let’s try and make good stronger.