Our brains typically detect negative experiences faster than positive ones
When you’re awake and not doing anything in particular, the brain activates the default mode network, resulting in mindwandering, which seems to be invovled in tracking your environment and body for possible threats. Our ancenstors had to constantly be looking over their shoulders, alert to the slightest crackle of brush, ready to freeze or bolt or attack depending on the situation. This basic awareness is often accompanied by a background feeling of anxiety that keeps you vigilant.
The brain typically detects negative information faster than positive information. Take facial expressions, a primary signal of threat or opportunity for a social animal like us: fearful faces are perceived much more rapidly than happy or neutral ones, probably fast-tracked by the amygdala. According to PET scans, the orbitofrontal cortex distinguishes and reacts to angry, disgusted and fearful facial expressions in other people but not to neutral facial expressions. Even when researchers make fearful faces invisible to conscious awareness, the amygdala still lights up. The brain is drawn to Bad News. This was necessary for our ancestors because if they missed out on a reward—a chance at food or mating, perhaps—they usually had other opportunities later. But if they failed to detect a predator then they could’ve been killed, with no chance at any rewards in the future. The ones that lived to pass on their genes paid a lot of attention to negative experiences.
References
- Hanson, Rick. (2009). Buddha’s Brain The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom Chapter 2.The Evolution of Suffering (p. 44). New Harbinger Publications: Oakland, CA.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Neuropsychology / Evolutionary Psychology Status:☀️