Your brain prioritises criticism over praise — Here’s why

Imagine this: you've received a dozen compliments in one day, but a single offhand insult leaves you brooding. Interestingly, research shows that this is not oversensitivity, but rather a biological phenomenon. Our brains are hardwired to give more attention and emotional weight to negative experiences than positive ones. This phenomenon is known as "negativity bias", a deeply ingrained survival mechanism.

A 2021 neuroscience review confirmed this: negative stimuli produce stronger brain activity than equally intense positive stimuli, underscoring the depth of the negativity bias.

In ancestral environments where threats were immediate and survival depended on detecting danger quickly, this bias made sense. Today, threats are rarely predators but missed deadlines, network failures, or social slights. Yet, our brain still treats negative signals as high priority alarms and then seldom turns them off!

This means that while one offhand insult can stay with you for years, a dozen kind words from last week can barely register. The memory of the negative sticks; the memory of the good fades.

In a study of emotional face recognition, researchers found a consistent tendency to interpret ambiguous faces as negative — a sign of negativity bias in action. Another paper reviewed multiple neuroscience methods (fMRI, ERP studies) and concluded that negative information is processed more rapidly and deeply than positive information.

Knowing the bias exists is the first step in rewiring the tilt. The next is working around it — not by denying or suppressing negativity (that's necessary), but by deliberately strengthening your positive experiences so they register more fully.

One small shift in how you respond to a compliment or criticism is not just emotional hygiene but akin to rewiring the brain. Your biology might be set up to remember the sting, but with intention, you can also make it remember the healing. And that's less about denying reality than about redefining what we give power to.