Sunday Times 2
Are you a glass half-empty person?
Do you struggle to look on the bright side of life?
If so, the next time someone tells you to cheer up, you can tell them it’s not your fault you’re grumpy.
Scientists have discovered that the ability to stay positive when times get tough may be hardwired in the brain.
The study is the first biological evidence proving there are, in fact, positive and negative people in the world.
Glass half full: Those who are grumpy and gloomy (such as Eeeyore, from Winne the Pooh) may have brains that make it difficult to be cheerful (CC BY 2.0 'Disneyland Paris Parade - Eeyore' by samlavi)
‘It’s the first time we’ve been able to find a brain marker that really distinguishes negative thinkers from positive thinkers,’ said Jason Moser, lead investigator and assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University. For the study, 71 women were shown graphic images and asked to put a positive spin on them while their brain activity was recorded.
The women were shown a masked man holding a knife to a woman’s throat, for example, and told one potential outcome was the woman breaking free and escaping.
The participants were surveyed beforehand to establish who tended to think positively and who thought negatively or worried.
The researchers found the brain reading of the positive thinkers was much less active than that of the worriers during the experiment.
‘The worriers actually showed a paradoxical backfiring effect in their brains when asked to decrease their negative emotions,’ said Dr Moser.
‘This suggests they have a really hard time putting a positive spin on difficult situations and actually make their negative emotions worse even when they are asked to think positively.’ The study, published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, focused on women because they are twice as likely as men to suffer from anxiety related problems.
Dr Moser said the findings have implications in the way negative thinkers approach difficult situations.
You can’t just tell your friend to think positively or to not worry – that’s probably not going to help them,’ he said.
‘So you need to take another tack and perhaps ask them to think about the problem in a different way, to use different strategies.’
Negative thinkers could also practice thinking positively, although he says it would probably take a lot of time and effort to even start to make a difference.
© Daily Mail, London