Is it possible to change your mind? | Book Summary| The Happiness Hypothesis Chapter 2.

Is it possible to go from a pessimist to a realist, or a pessimist to an optimist? Well, let's see :).

The Like-O-Meter

Keeping with the metaphor of the elephant and the rider, the most important words that the elephant understands are like and dislike, or approach and withdraw. If a brain is complex enough to have emotions these decisions are made effortlessly and automatically by using or having what is sometimes referred to as a like-o-meter. For example, you eat a fruit with a sweet taste to it, you're like-o-meter says this is good; if you bite into a fruit and The taste is bitter, you're like-o-meter says this isn't good, which discourages you from continuing to eat it. The influence of this like-o-meter on our lives can often times be subtle. However, experiments have shown its effect and influence on our daily lives. if you'd like to learn more about how the like-o-meter can influence our lives, I suggest you research “affective priming”.
Research into affective priming has basically shown us that we can bypass the rider, that is our conscious thought, in order to talk directly to the elephant, in this case being unconscious thought. This like-o-meter activates almost instantaneously, as well as, unconsciously. The implications are quite important, for they illustrate that some of the most important decisions in our life, such as buying a house, choosing a child's name, and choosing a mate are affected buy this like-o-meter. Going back to the quote from the beginning of this summary, life is what we deem it, but the deeming happens unconsciously and almost automatically, it seems.

Negativity Bias

Most people will attest to the statement that it is easier to see the negative than it is to see the positive. From an evolutionary psychologist’s point of view, this may seem very logical. Responses to opportunities and threats are not quite the same. The reason being, if you miss an opportunity for food the effects are not nearly as deadly as if you had missed the signal that there was a predator nearby. thus, we must respond more quickly to the negative then we do to the positive. Over and over again psychologist find that the mind of a human reacts to bad things more quickly, strongly, and persistently than equivalent good things.

Opposing systems push against each other to reach a point of balance, but the balance point is adjustable. For example, the sympathetic system prepares your body for fight or flight and the parasympathetic system calms you down. Both are active at all times in different ratios. Your behavior is governed by opposing motivational systems. The approach system triggers positive emotions and makes you move towards something ; the withdrawal system triggers negative emotions and makes you want to pull back or avoid things. Both are always active monitoring their environment. Perhaps one of the more interesting things noticed about how these two systems interact with each other is that they can produce opposing motives at the same time, but the balance is what determines which way you move, which way the scales are tipping if you will.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to be said about this negativity bias, is that some people indeed or more negative than others. Some people have trouble bouncing back. Some people have trouble ever seeing the opportunities, the positive things, or the bright side if you will. a number of psychologist believed that 50 to 80% of the average levels of happiness among people can be contributed to their genetics. So the question presents itself if I was born a pessimist am I doomed to live this fate forever?

Well, the answer seems to be a resounding no. There are actually a number of different things you can do to counteract this overly active negative side. I want to preface this by saying, I am no psychologist and I recommend that you see one if you are having these sorts of difficulties. I, myself, am only making a book summary in the hopes to share knowledge in a more condensed format. To list off the number of different options available to you they are as follows: meditation, cognitive therapy, and neural reuptake inhibitors. Once again I would like to reiterate the point that I am not a psychologist and I highly suggest that you see one if you are curious about any of these treatment options. I am only a man trying to summarize a good book.