Anna Ronnlund at Leadership Forum explains how to avoid “negativity bias.”

Have you ever wondered why people tend to perceive the world around them more negatively than reality and suffer from the so-called “negativity bias”? On the occasion Leadership Forumorganized by Performance Strategies, we interviewed Anna Rosling Ronnlund, Designer and global trend expert to delve deeper into the concept negative perception of the world that surrounds us and people’s obsession with negative news.

How to avoid negativity bias

Speaking on the Forum stage at the Teatro Arcimboldi in Milan, Ronnlund said: “We live in a world in which a lot of information has been digitized as part of data democratization.” And that is exactly why it will be that way It is important to be able to correctly interpret and analyze the amount of data we have access to. This allows us to make better decisions and make all decision-making processes more efficient in the future. In this scenario, it will therefore be important to always ask yourself questions, Always reflect and review the data“.

Ronnlung further emphasized: “There is a huge gap between the way people perceive the world and what the data says about the actual state of the world and the impact this has on decision-making.” Why If we’re completely wrong about the world we live in, we run the risk of making some pretty bad decisions.”

When asked how to avoid “negativity bias,” Ronnlund responded, “The first step is to remember that you are most likely attracted to negativity. Starting from that assumption is a good point.” The second step would be to check the data, because most of the news we see and read is negative, but often the data suggests a different context than the one is described in the media.”

Why do people focus on bad news?

But why do people focus on negative news? Is it part of our DNA? When asked, Ronnlund replied: “I believe that people always need to understand whether there is danger, because survival is human nature.” Therefore, in order to survive, we must always control everything negative around us to ensure we survive and thrive. Many of us continue to survive on a daily basis. But I think we are generally more interested in negative news because it is more exciting, juicy and fascinating. When we look at the good news, almost all of it has a component of terrible things that happened precisely because they caught our attention. So I think if the news started producing only neutral or positive news, we as humans would become frustrated because we really need to know all the bad things that are happening.”

You can watch the full interview here Anna Rosling Ronnlund