The tyranny of positivity: A Harvard psychologist details our unhealthy obsession with happiness
Think happy, be happy? Maybe not. Harvard psychologist Susan David examines the backlash effect of forced positivity in our lives.
31 August, 2016
Some days it can feel like we’re living inside an overly sincere Hallmark card. The dominant messaging in western societies is: Be happy. Don’t worry. It will be alright. Just reach for happiness. Take your destiny into your own hands. The people close to you, to whom you can tell your worries, they smile and a speech bubble floats from their mouth saying: ‘Think positive!’ Somewhere, a Disney bird is chirping.
<p>Harvard psychologist Susan David doesn’t trust this messaging, and worries how it is shaping us and our children. She first experienced the detriment of forced positivity when she was 16 years old and her father was diagnosed with cancer. Friends and relatives came to console the family, and the large-scale sentiment was that if the family just believed, he would be okay. In hindsight, David sees how damaging this was as it impacted on her family’s ability to be present, to spend authentic time together and embrace reality, as they were distracted by their hope for a cure on the horizon instead.</p>
<p>David experienced it a second tragic time through a friend of hers who was recently diagnosed with and died of stage-four breast cancer. This friend described her own experience of suffering with cancer as amplified by what she called ‘the tyranny of positivity’. This woman had been to support group meetings, and she knew first-hand that positive thinking did not save the women who did not return to group each week. </p>
<p>Happiness has become an expectation, but David notes that we can't forget that there is no one state of being that a person is entitled to, as she puts it: life’s beauty is inseparable from its fragility. Humans must develop the skills and capacity to deal with difficult times, not sweep it aside as a glitch in the smooth delivery of constant happiness. Sadness, heartbreak, and grief aren’t signs of weakness, and pretending these "uglier" emotions don’t exist only hinders our authentic existence and experience of life. It lowers our resilience to future difficulties as well. </p>
<p>Happiness is not the goal, she says. If you build your life around things that you intrinsically value, happiness will be a beautiful byproduct of that focus. </p>
<p>Susan David's most recent book is <a href="http://www.susandavid.com/bonus"><i>Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life</i></a>. Bonus pack is available <a href="http://www.susandavid.com/bonus">here</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.susandavid.com/bonus"><img height="150" src="%5Cr%5Cnhttps://s3.amazonaws.com/edge-misc-assets/Book+Covers/Susan+David.jpg" width="225"></a></p>
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'I thought I saw a terrorist': How to manage false alarms, blind fear and panic
Rumors of a terrorist gunman escalated at LAX. A panicked crowd trampled an old woman, snapping her femur. In our best Dick Cheney voice: "If you allow blind fear to disrupt society, the terrorists have already won."
31 August, 2016
<p dir="ltr">A loud noise caused a panic at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on a recent Saturday in late August. At 8:45pm, passengers who were quietly waiting for their flights suddenly mobilized into a panicked herd, running in all directions, live-tweeting videos, and screaming about a shooter. But there was no shooter, according to local ABC affiliate <a href="http://www.wkow.com/story/32860354/2016/08/Monday/false-alarm-causes-panic-chaos-at-lax">WKOW</a>. Police evacuated the suspected terminals and did a thorough investigation, but found no viable threat. The noise that shut down an entire airport and backed up flights into Monday morning was a literal false alarm. </p> <p dir="ltr">That incident is far from the only time Americans freaked out at a false threat. Earlier this month, passengers at Kennedy International Airport in New York City went into the same sort of panic over another literal false alarm. Mall patrons in North Carolina, Michigan, and Florida did too. In every incident, mass hysteria broke out. </p> <p dir="ltr">People were injured, even trampled, over perceived threats, causing much more damage and fear than if they had simply waited for further information before reacting. That's hard to do, especially with such a serious situation as a terrorist threat. But it's just psychological conditioning; reacting calmly to a potential terrorist threat is a choice you can make. Neurobiologically speaking, you can stimulate the production of acetylcholine, a “tranquilizer that you can self-administer simply by taking a few deep breaths with long exhales," according to<em> </em><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201302/the-neurobiology-grace-under-pressure" target="_blank"><em>Psychology Today</em></a>. Game designer Jane McGonigal explains the technique here:</p> <div class="video-full-card-placeholder" data-slug="jane-mcgonigal-teaches-a-breathing-hack" style="border: 1px solid #ccc;">
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</div> <p dir="ltr">A group of <a href="http://www.guns.com/2014/01/07/former-navy-seals-offer-training-civilians-surviving-active-shooter-situation-video/" target="_blank">former Navy SEALS who offer safety training</a> for mass shootings offers these survival tips as well:</p><li>Observe the area around you and identify any potential threats</li> <li dir="ltr">Remind yourself you are not in danger yet and repeat it like a mantra</li> <li dir="ltr">If you see a threat, lie down on the floor or hide quietly behind something</li> <li dir="ltr">If you're discovered, run. Ninety-six percent of the time a shooter will miss a moving target</li> <p dir="ltr"><br></p><p dir="ltr">If there's anyone around you who's freaking out, either try to quiet them or get away from them. Their anxiety will spread and will make everyone react in a panic, Psychology Today advises.<br></p> <p dir="ltr">All of those tips can keep a scary incident from becoming a panicked frenzy. That said, the frenzied response of the airport and mall patrons, while drastic, is understandable. Incidents of shooters in airports at Brussels and Istanbul happened earlier this year. High-profile terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice, France, as well as within our own borders in San Bernadino and Orlando, also happened this year. All of those attacks primed us to expect the worst. Always. “The steady stream of news reports of bloodshed has heightened anxieties out of proportion to the threat," <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/us/shooting-scares-show-a-nation-quick-to-fear-the-worst.html?em_pos=large&emc=edit_nn_20160830&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=76162649&_r=0">The New York Times</a> explains, “making panic more likely to take hold." Dr. Daniel Antonius explained to the Times that there is “a national anxiety about mass attacks that did not reflect the real level of danger."</p> <p dir="ltr">The real level of danger is much lower than most of us think. All violent crimes, including terrorist attacks, are at the lowest levels they've ever been, according to the <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/violent-crime">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> (FBI). See?</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTE0MDM5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NjE3ODkzOX0.50iw2XNYO_L-MoXQQVhxU3IM5QvjZpL9W_A-y-dAHRk/img.jpg?width=980" id="d6248" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d0c41b3a3a33be849f41b3d83a8c4547" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Image source: FBI</small></p><p>In 2014, only 1,165,383 violent crimes happened in America according to the FBI's statistics. Sixty-three percent of them were aggravated assaults; 0.000016 percent were terrorist attacks, according to the <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_AmericanTerrorismDeaths_FactSheet_Oct2015.pdf">Global Terrorism Database</a>. That's 19 terrorist attacks. That's more than we'd like, but certainly not as many as we feel threatened by. Compared to the onslaught of potential threats stoked by the 24/7 news cycle – and to Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, whose combined experience of terrorist attacks is 54 percent of the entire world's attacks – when you look at the numbers, Americans have no reason to panic.<br></p> <p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQwNzk2MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDQzMDYyOX0.dNTyiuhsOlvVdjkeLCYs9WUGnlGygaARDPsfBa2JHU0/img.jpg?width=980" id="26c69" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ef7910cdc0e5e3e5c8b00a59e763b55f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><em>The concentration and intensity of every terror attack in 2015. Source: <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/images/START_GlobalTerrorismDatabase_2015TerroristAttacksConcentrationIntensityMap.jpg" target="_blank">Global Terrorism Database</a>.</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Worse still, living in that constant state of panic is hurting us. We've told you before about <a href="http://bigthink.com/laurie-vazquez/what-fear-does-to-your-brain-and-how-to-stop-it" target="_blank">how fear warps your brain</a> and panic works much the same way. According to the <a href="http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/panic-disorder-when-fear-overwhelms/index.shtml" target="_blank">National Institute of Mental Health</a>, panic is “a fear of disaster or of losing control even when there is no real danger." It brings intense feelings of fear, worry, and helplessness. It can even cause physical symptoms, like a heart attack. </p> <p dir="ltr">To be clear, the threat of a terrorist attack in the United States is more perceived danger than real danger. But the psychological warfare of terrorism works because it is draws on the natural effects of panic to instill fear and disrupt society, whether through airport shutdowns or mistrust between communities. Australian media commentator Waleed Aly has called terrorism the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxNJLkIkYQM" target="_blank">mouse that roars</a>. By panicking about any potential threat and treating it as if it might be the worst possible one we can experience – a terrorist attack – we dull our senses and response time to actual threats, exhausting our mental and emotional resources. Harvard psychologist Susan David explains it this way: “The more familiar something sounds… even if the story is inaccurate, even if the story doesn't serve us, the more we are likely to become immured to it and immune to it."</p> <p dir="ltr">We do need to be vigilant against terrorist attacks. But we also need to be vigilant against accepting false information and blind panic. Limiting exposure to news will help. Reading Alain de Botton's <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307476838" target="_blank"><em>The News</em></a> will help. So will understanding the actual probability of a terrorist attack. But there are real consequences to not taking this seriously. David broke it all down for us:</p> <div class="video-full-card-placeholder" data-slug="susan-david-on-psychology-of-fear-and-demagoguery" style="border: 1px solid #ccc;">
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