I’ve been following the World Cup very closely. This morning I woke up and the first thing I did was to open turn on my phone and google the words “Brazil Germany world cup”. That was the prompt that would pull up the score for the World Cup match between two countries.
I saw this.
And I couldn’t believe it. I rubbed my eyes a little and sat up from my bed. Then I looked at my phone one more time and the numbers didn’t change. Germany thrashed Brazil 7-1.
I googled around then for news wondering what could have possibly happened. And then I found this article.
A quote from the article:
Scolari admitted Tuesday was the darkest experience of his career after the remarkable contest at Estadio Mineirao left the host country heartbroken as its dream of clinching the World Cup for the sixth time was destroyed in clinical fashion.
And what got me to think was this quote from the Brazil coach Scolari.
“If I was to think of my life as a football player, coach and teacher, I think it was the worst day of my life,” Scolari said. “I am going to be remembered probably because I lost 7-1 for Brazil but I knew that was a risk when I took this position.
What hit me was that 12 years ago, this was the same coach that brought Brazil to win the World Cup and after today, he’s decided that nobody would remember him for that. Instead everybody would remember him as the coach that led Brazil to a thrashing of 7 goals to 1 at their very own home ground.
The truth is he’s right. But why? Why do people prefer to remember bad things than the good? Maybe that explains why gossip very often covers bad things about a person over a good thing.
So I googled it to find out if there is a scientific explanation to why people remember bad or negative things over the good. And I found this article which completely reaffirms the notion that people remember bad things over the good.
“Some people do have a more positive outlook, but almost everyone remembers negative things more strongly and in more detail.”
Okay so say you’re at work and you have always been doing a good job. When you DO make a mistake though, everyone forgets that you’ve always been doing a good job and just remembers that one mistake.
But why?
The answer is… we’re made like that. It’s evolution. The article states.
As with many other quirks of the human psyche, there may be an evolutionary basis for this. Those who are “more attuned to bad things would have been more likely to survive threats and, consequently, would have increased the probability of passing along their genes,” the article states. “Survival requires urgent attention to possible bad outcomes but less urgent with regard to good ones.”
We’re hardwired like that.
The good news though is that there is hope. Knowing this tendency for our human nature to remember the bad things over the good, we could make a more conscious effort to remember the good.
So when you look at someone who has done something bad or made a mistake…. perhaps try to look at the good he has done. It’s harder to do… but it’ll make the world a more positive and happy place.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space