Happy or angry? Express 6 positive stories to dissolve one negative story

Six positives to one negative 


We all need more positive news

Why have I checked 4 daily news apps to find out which one made my life a little easier and a little more optimistic? Because it is a well-kept secret that we humans need optimism, faith in the future and positivity. However, I came to look far for the optimism in the four news apps.

I checked 4 danish news sites: Berlingske, Politiken, TV2 and DR on Tuesday 29 June 2021 at 14:00. The survey was relatively simple. How many positive and how many negative headlines had these sites formulated?

The 4 sites contained a total of 271 stories. Most of them were about the same thing, but had completely different headlines:

Berlingske had 65 headlines. Of these, 20 were positive and 45 negative = 30% positive news.

Politiken had 76 headlines. Of these, 26 were positive and 50 negative = 34% positive news.

TV2 had 70 headlines. Of these, 24 were positive and 46 negative = 34% positive news.

DR had 60 headlines. Of these, 33 were positive and 27 negative = 55% positive news.

If you have to be kind and gentle, the 4 results are fairly similar. DR wins with the best result. But none of them are close to the good news that is following this sentence.

How it should be: 6 to 1 = 84% positive news

Back to the well-kept secret. It reads like this: It takes 6 positive statements to equalize 1 negative. This means that every time we as humans encounter 1 negative wording, it affects us so much that approx. 6 positive formulations to equalize the one. Creepy and true. The one negative formulation is therefore stored and is only really dissolved again when 6 more happy stories have been added.

Try comparing this to being visited by 7 friends. One friend is mad and angry. The other 6 friends are happy and uplifting. Then it will be an excellent and optimistic meeting. But if there are 2 angry friends, it's going to be a long and sad evening. One acid can be neutralized. But two sours can't. Seven sours is a wall of pessimism and sourness.

Whenever I show the iconic training film FISH! with the happy fishmongers from Seattle, I ask designated participants to count the number of negative, neutral, and positive wordings. The film does not contain many negative formulations, in fact none at all. The film also does not contain many neutral formulations. But the film contains at least 30 positive statements. The film shows 12 employees in the very same workplace. Very good signs I would say.

You must draw the conclusion yourself. The choice is yours. My suggestion is that you choose some optimistic news and some happy friends.



Michael Meinhardt
LEADERSwarehouse.com 
☎ +45 71 92 55 63 ✉ info@LEADERSwarehouse.com


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