Explainer | ‘The bad stuff is easier to believe,’ Julia Roberts’ Pretty Woman character says. How to avoid negative thinking and accentuate the positive in life
- Our negativity bias means we are likely to react more strongly to things that go wrong, whether it’s a comment, thought, emotion, experience or situation
- Experts’ tips on overcoming it include accepting negative thoughts, being objective, savouring positive moments, and practising mindfulness
In the 1990 Hollywood movie Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts’ character Vivian Ward, a prostitute, reveals to Richard Gere’s character, corporate raider Edward Lewis, that she has low self-esteem after having been belittled all her life.
“People put you down enough, you start to believe it,” she says.
“I think you are a very bright, very special woman,” Edward responds.
“The bad stuff is easier to believe. You ever notice that?” she replies.
Vivian might have been trying to say that, as humans, we tend to react more strongly to negative sentiments than positive or neutral ones.
A negative comment, thought, emotion, experience or situation is more likely to “stick” – that is, it’s more likely to get our attention. And we are more likely to ruminate over it, even if it’s insignificant or inconsequential.
