"The most important book at the borderland of psychology and politics that I have ever
read."-Martin E. P. Seligman Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at that University of
Pennsylvania and author of Learned Optimism Why are we devastated by a word of criticism even
when it's mixed with lavish praise? Because our brains are wired to focus on the bad. This
negativity effect explains things great and small: why countries blunder into disastrous wars
why couples divorce why people flub job interviews how schools fail students why football
coaches stupidly punt on fourth down. All day long the power of bad governs people's moods
drives marketing campaigns and dominates news and politics. Eminent social scientist Roy F.
Baumeister stumbled unexpectedly upon this fundamental aspect of human nature. To find out why
financial losses mattered more to people than financial gains Baumeister looked for situations
in which good events made a bigger impact than bad ones. But his team couldn't find any. Their
research showed that bad is relentlessly stronger than good and their paper has become one of
the most-cited in the scientific literature. Our brain's negativity bias makes evolutionary
sense because it kept our ancestors alert to fatal dangers but it distorts our perspective in
today's media environment. The steady barrage of bad news and crisismongering makes us feel
helpless and leaves us needlessly fearful and angry. We ignore our many blessings preferring
to heed-and vote for-the voices telling us the world is going to hell. But once we
recognize our negativity bias the rational brain can overcome the power of bad when it's
harmful and employ that power when it's beneficial. In fact bad breaks and bad feelings create
the most powerful incentives to become smarter and stronger. Properly understood bad can be
put to perfectly good use. As noted science journalist John Tierney and Baumeister show in
this wide-ranging book we can adopt proven strategies to avoid the pitfalls that doom
relationships careers businesses and nations. Instead of despairing at what's wrong in your
life and in the world you can see how much is going right-and how to make it still better.
