Forget Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and his “Power of Positive Thinking.” Ignore those Bing Crosby lyrics about accentuating the positive, eliminating the negative and not messing with Mr. In-Between. As Bobby McFerrin probably should have sung, “Don’t be happy, worry.”
According to a new study in the journal Emotion, people who fear the worst are better off than those who hope for the best. People who worry about bad things happening to them, it found, handle bad news better than those who have conditioned themselves to hope for good news. Conversely, the pessimists were more elated than the optimists if the news turned out to be good.
When it came to how people handled news, one of the study’s authors declared “The poor waiters did great. If the news was bad, the worriers were ready with productive, reasonable responses.”
They’re calling it “defensive pessimism” or “proactive coping” and it’s a philosophy I’ve been practicing for years.
Just about every morning I mentally run through a litany of the bad things that might happen to me that day. What if I lose my job today? What if my doctor’s office calls with bad news about the test results? What if the Cleveland Browns finally manage to reach the Super Bowl and I can’t get a ticket to the game? (OK, that’s not really a biggie). If those things happen, I won’t be surprised. On the other hand, if they don’t happen, I’ll be happy.
I’m not the only one who believes in the power of negative thinking.
“Set your expectations low and think through the negative possibilities,” said Julie K. Norem, the author of “The Positive Power of Negative Thinking,” and a professor of psychology at Wellesley, who was not involved in the Emotion study. “It drives optimists crazy. But it shifts your attention away from feelings of anxiety to what you can do to address the disaster that might happen.”
I’m pretty sure that the whole positive thinking thing is a scam, anyway, perpetuated by the same inspirational speech-giving, book-selling hucksters who try to make us believe that if we can imagine it, we can achieve it. I’ve tried that approach and it doesn’t work. Ever since I saw the movie “Notting Hill,” for instance, I’ve imagined Julia Roberts dumping Hugh Grant, falling in love with me and having my baby. But Julia and I are no closer to having a baby together than we ever were and, as a negative thinker, I’m pretty sure we never will be.
On the other hand, if it ever happens will I be happy?
Positively.
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