The Positive Power of Negative Thinking
The title of this article is the title of a 2002 book by Julie K. Norem, a psychology professor at Wellesley College. The idea behind it is that the Chicken Little’s of the world who are always predicting a disaster are practicing “defensive pessimism.”
But the topic came to mind as I was reviewing old articles I haven’t had space for and came across John Cloud’s provocatively titled article for Time magazine called “Yes, I Suck: Self-Help Through Negative Thinking.” Mr. Cloud began by noting the millions of hours and dollars people have spent in therapists’ offices trying to overcome their self-doubts, and then pointed out that one reason it may be taking so many visits is that it is a futile exercise. He quoted a study published in the journal Psychological Science that said trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
He wrote: “The study’s authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin with a common-sense proposition: when people hear something they don’t believe, they are not only often skeptical but adhere even more strongly to their original position.” For example, if you try to tell me that the Yankees are baseball’s best team, and I am tired of hearing it, I may argue the opposite, with more conviction than I actually have, just to be obstinate.
Mr. Cloud notes that the study showed how we do the same thing with our own thoughts. “Many of us are reluctant to revise our self-judgment, especially for the better. In 1994, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a paper showing that when people get feedback that they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better… In one fascinating 1990s experiment demonstrating this effect – called cognitive dissonance in official terms – a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write hard-hearted essays opposing funding for the disabled. When these participants were later told they were compassionate, they felt even worse about what they had written.”
In the more recent study quoted by Mr. Cloud, students were first measured on their self-esteem and then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds during those four minutes, one randomly assigned group of the students heard a bell. When they heard it, they were supposed to tell themselves, “I am a lovable person.”
“Those with low self-esteem didn’t feel better after those 16 bursts of self-affirmation,” noted Mr. Cloud, “In fact, their self-evaluations and moods were significantly more negative than those of the people not asked to remind themselves of their lovability.”
According to Mr. Cloud, “Wood, Lee and Perunovic conclude that unfavorable thoughts about ourselves intrude very easily, especially among those of us with low self-esteem – so easily and so persistently that even when a positive alternative is presented, it just underlines how awful we believe we are.”
But Dr. Norem’s view of negativity is more positive. In a brief article from O, Oprah Winfrey’s magazine she said, “Defensive pessimism is a strategy used in specific situations to manage anxiety, fear, and worry.” She added, “Defensive pessimists prepare for a situation by setting low expectations for themselves, then follow up with a very detailed assessment of everything that may go wrong. Once they’ve imagined the full range of bad outcomes, they start figuring out how they’ll handle them, and that gives them a sense of control.” In other words, they do their best when given the opportunity to prepare for the worst.
In the same article, Lawrence Sanna, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who has also studied the phenomenon, notes, “What’s intriguing about defensive pessimists is that they tend to be very successful people, and so their low opinion of the outcome isn’t realistic; they use it to motivate themselves to perform better.” For example, an executive is getting ready to pitch a project, and she thinks beforehand, “The client is going to be really difficult; he’s not going to like my proposal. I have to make sure I explain things very clearly.” “She uses defensive pessimism as a tool to work through all the possibilities so she’s prepared for everything, even failure,” Dr. Sanna says. “And if she does fail, she’s ready for it, so it’s not so catastrophic.”
And finally, also quoting from the above article, you would be wise, if you are dealing with a pessimist in your life, to stop trying to make him or her change. “Research shows that if you pressure defensive pessimists into being optimistic, or try to manipulate their mood, their performance deteriorates,” says Andrew J. Elliot, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. One of the most frequent comments Dr. Norem got after publishing The Positive Power of Negative Thinking was “Thank you. I can finally tell my mother to shut up.” Dr. Norem explains the strategic thinking of defensive pessimists on her website:
“Defensive pessimism is a strategy used by anxious people to help them manage their anxiety so they can work productively. Defensive pessimists lower their expectations to help prepare themselves for the worst. Then, they mentally play through all the bad things that might happen. Though it sounds as if it might be depressing, defensive pessimism actually helps anxious people focus away from their emotions so that they can plan and act effectively… My experimental research shows that if defensive pessimists try to raise their expectations, or avoid playing through a worst-case analysis, their anxiety increases and their performance suffers.”
Are you a defensive pessimist? Here is the Defensive Pessimism Questionnaire from Dr. Norem’s website. (To find out what your results mean, you will have to take it on the website.)
Think of a situation where you want to do your best. It may be related to work, to your social life, or to any of your goals. When you answer the following questions, please think about how you prepare for that kind of situation. Rate how true each statement is for you, according to the following scale:
Not at all true of me 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 Very true of me 1. I often start out expecting the worst, even though I will probably do OK. 2. I worry about how things will turn out.
Weekly News Bites – February 8, 2010 – Page 2 of 6
3. I carefully consider all possible outcomes. 4. I often worry that I won’t be able to carry through my intentions. 5. I spend lots of time imagining what could go wrong. 6. I imagine how I would feel if things went badly. 7. I try to picture how I could fix things if something went wrong. 8. I’m careful not to become overconfident in these situations. 9. I spend a lot of time planning when one of these situations is coming up. 10. I imagine how I would feel if things went well.
What Do You Think?
• Are you more naturally a pessimist or optimist? Does it depend on the situation?
• Do you know a person who practices defensive pessimism? Does this article help you understand that person better?
• Does understanding their thinking make it any easier to be around people who are negative in their outlook? Why or why not?
• Do you agree that pessimists are better prepared for disaster than optimists? Why or why not?
• Can you be too optimistic? (Think of financial speculators, for example)
• These articles would seem to equate low self-esteem with negative thinking and therefore pessimism. Are they necessarily related? Can you be a pessimist with high self-esteem?
A Weekly News Activity February 8, 2010
