Neuroscientists say the human brain is wired to remember negative experiences much longer than positive moments, a phenomenon called “negativity bias.”
This evolutionary trait once helped early humans survive and avoid danger, but today it causes us to hold onto emotional pain and insults for a long time, while compliments and positive moments fade quickly.
Research shows that criticism or insults generate intense electrical activity in the amygdala, the emotional part of the brain, while praise has a transient response in the brain’s reward centers.
This is why one annoying sentence may be repeated in the mind for years, while dozens of compliments are quickly forgotten.
