Pollyanna principle#Positivity effect

File:Pollyanna poster.jpg]]

The name derives from the 1913 novel Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter describing a girl who plays the "glad game"—trying to find something to be glad about in every situation. The novel has been adapted to film several times, most famously in 1920 and 1960. An early use of the name "Pollyanna" in psychological literature was in 1969 by Boucher and Osgood who described a Pollyanna hypothesis as a universal human tendency to use positive words more frequently and diversely than negative words in communicating.{{sfn|Boucher|Osgood|1969}} Empirical evidence for this tendency has been provided by computational analyses of large corpora of text.{{sfn|Dodds|Clark|Desu|Frank|2015}}{{sfn|Holtz|Deutschmann|Dobewall|2017}}

The story of Pollyanna is about an orphaned little girl, who is sent to live with her Aunt Polly, who is known for being stiff, strict, and proper. When thrown into this environment, Pollyanna seeks to keep and spread her optimism to others. This beloved literary character's story shares the message that despite how hard things may seem, a sunny disposition can turn anyone and anything around.

The Pollyanna principle was described by Margaret Matlin and David Stang in 1978 using the archetype of Pollyanna more specifically as a psychological principle which portrays the positive bias people have when thinking of the past. According to the Pollyanna principle, the brain processes information that is pleasing and agreeable in a more precise and exact manner as compared to unpleasant information. We actually tend to remember past experiences as more rosy than they actually occurred. The researchers found that people expose themselves to positive stimuli and avoid negative stimuli, they take longer to recognize what is unpleasant or threatening than what is pleasant and safe, and they report that they encounter positive stimuli more frequently than they actually do. Matlin and Stang also determined that selective recall was a more likely occurrence when recall was delayed: the longer the delay, the more selective recall that occurred.{{sfn|Matlin|Stang|1978}}

The Pollyanna principle has been observed on online social networks as well. For example, a series of studies by Emilio Ferrara, a computer scientist at the University of Southern California, found that Twitter users preferentially share more, and are emotionally affected more frequently by, positive information.{{sfn|Ferrara|Yang|2015a}}{{sfn|Ferrara|Yang|2015b}}

However, the only exception to the Pollyanna principle tends to be individuals suffering from depression or anxiety, who are more likely to either have more depressive realism or a negative bias.{{sfn|Carr|2004}}

{{dist|Positive affect|Publication bias}}

The positivity effect is the ability to constructively analyze a situation where the desired results are not achieved, but still obtain positive feedback that assists one's future progression.

Empirical research findings suggest that the positivity effect can be influenced by internal positive speech, where engaging in constructive self-dialogue can significantly improve one’s ability to perceive and react to challenging situations more optimistically.{{Cite journal |last1=Racy |first1=Famira |last2=Morin |first2=Alain |date=January 2024 |title=Relationships between Self-Talk, Inner Speech, Mind Wandering, Mindfulness, Self-Concept Clarity, and Self-Regulation in University Students |journal=Behavioral Sciences |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=55 |doi=10.3390/bs14010055 |doi-access=free |issn=2076-328X |pmc=10813701 |pmid=38247707}}

The findings of a study show that the optimism bias in future-oriented thinking fulfils a self-improvement purpose while also suggesting this bias probably reflects a common underpinning motivational process across various future-thinking domains, either episodic or semantic.{{Cite journal |last1=Salgado |first1=Sinué |last2=Berntsen |first2=Dorthe |date=2019-04-29 |title=My future is brighter than yours: the positivity bias in episodic future thinking and future self-images |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01189-z |journal=Psychological Research |volume=84 |issue=7 |pages=1829–1845 |doi=10.1007/s00426-019-01189-z |pmid=31037451 |s2cid=140294480 |issn=0340-0727}}

{{Main article|Selective perception}}

The positivity effect as an attribution phenomenon relates to the habits and characteristics of people when evaluating the causes of their behaviors. To positively attribute is to be open to attributing a person’s inherent disposition as the cause of their positive behaviors, and the situations surrounding them as the potential cause of their negative behaviors.

Two studies by Emilio Ferrara have shown that, on online social networks like Twitter and Instagram, users prefer to share positive news, and are emotionally affected by positive news more than twice as much as they are by negative news.{{cite journal |title = Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media |journal = PLoS ONE |volume = 10 |issue = 1 |year = 2015 |pages = e0142390 |doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0142390|last1 = Ferrara |first1 = Emilio |last2 = Yang |first2 = Zeyao |pmid=26544688 |pmc=4636231|bibcode = 2015PLoSO..1042390F |arxiv = 1506.06021 |doi-access = free }}{{cite journal |title = Quantifying the effect of sentiment on information diffusion in social media |journal = PeerJ Computer Science|volume = 1 |year = 2015 |pages = e26 |doi = 10.7717/peerj-cs.26|last1 = Ferrara |first1 = Emilio |last2 = Yang |first2 = Zeyao |arxiv = 1506.06072 |bibcode = 2015arXiv150606072F|s2cid = 14133100 | doi-access=free }}

Positivity bias is the part of the Pollyanna principle that attributes reasons to why people may choose positivity over negative or realistic mindsets. In positive psychology, it is broken down into three ideas: positive illusions, self deception, and optimism.{{sfn|Carr|2004}}

Having a positive bias increases with age, as it is more prevalent in adults approaching older adulthood than younger children or adolescents.{{cite web |last1=Ackerman |first1=C. E. |title=Pollyanna principle: The psychology of positivity bias |date=20 August 2018 |url=https://positivepsychology.com/pollyanna-principle/ |access-date=March 10, 2021}} Older adults tend to pay attention to positive information, and this could be due to a specific focus in cognitive processing. In studies compiled by Andrew Reed and Laura Carstensen, they found that older adults (in comparison to younger adults) purposefully directed their attention away from negative material.{{cite journal |last1=Reed |first1=A. E. |last2=Carstensen |first2=L. L. |title=The theory behind the age-related positivity effect |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |date=2012 |volume=339}}

Although the Pollyanna principle can be seen as helpful in some situations, some psychologists say it may inhibit an individual from coping effectively with life obstacles.{{cite web |title=Pollyanna principle: The ability to focus only on the positive |url=https://exploringyourmind.com/pollyanna-principle-ability-focus-positive/ |access-date=March 10, 2021 |date=September 5, 2020}} The Pollyanna principle in some instances can be known as "Pollyanna syndrome" and is defined by such skeptics as a person who is excessively positive and blind towards the negative or real. With regard to therapy or counseling, it is viewed as dangerous to both the therapist and patient.{{cite journal |last1=Latecki |first1=B. |title=Pollyanna syndrome in psychotherapy-or pseudotherapy. counseling, consoling or counterfeiting? |journal=European Psychiatry |date=2017 |volume=41 |pages=S777–S778 |doi=10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.01.1474|s2cid=148849363 }}

{{Portal|Psychology|Society}}

{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}

• Appeal to flattery
• Cloud cuckoo land
• Coping
• Cornucopianism
• Confirmation bias
• Depressive realism
• Illusory superiority
• List of biases in judgment and decision making
• List of memory biases
• Optimism bias
• Overconfidence effect
• Positivity effect
• Positivity offset
• Reality principle
• Rosy retrospection
• Scotomization
• Self-deception
• Self-serving bias
• Toxic positivity
• Wishful thinking

{{Div col end}}

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{{refend}}

• {{cite book | doi=10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2219| chapter=Positivity Bias| title=Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research| pages=4938–4941| year=2014| last1=Hoorens| first1=Vera| isbn=978-94-007-0752-8|publisher=Springer Netherlands}}
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{{Pollyanna}}

{{Biases}}

Category:1978 neologisms

Category:Cognitive biases

Category:Figures of speech

Category:Principles

Category:Pollyanna

Category:Optimism