Pollyanna’s Principle Or The Ability To Focus Only On The Positive

The Pollyanna principle has its origin in the novels of Eleanor H. Porter. Its protagonist, a girl with the same name, has the ability to focus only on the positive side of things. This strong and decisive optimism served as inspiration to define the bias that would allow us, in essence, to live happier and more connected with others.

Is it really appropriate to focus our personal vision towards the positivity that this psychological principle enunciates? It is very likely that most of our readers have serious doubts and show some skepticism. Sometimes, as we well know, those rose-colored glasses can make us lose certain angles of our surroundings, certain highly relevant nuances that subtract realism and objectivity from our vision.

The flourishing of positive psychology led by Martin Seligman is currently undergoing important reformulations. Organizations such as the University of Buckingham (the world’s first institution to train and educate its students in the foundations of this perspective) are changing some of its foundations. One of them is related to the definition of happiness.

Somehow, we can say that the “new” positive psychology has abandoned the pretense of teaching us to be happier. The famous culture of happiness and all those books and self-help works are giving way to a new format, a new perspective. One where we can give ourselves tools to also know how to deal with the negative and adversities. Because in life we ​​cannot always focus on that bright and optimistic side as the always determined and lively Pollyanna did …

Pollyanna Principle What is it?

After being orphaned, little Pollyana was sent to live with her bitter and strict Aunt Polly. Far from giving up, the little girl did not hesitate to continue applying day after day that philosophy of life that her own father instilled in her from a very young age. One where you can transform your reality into a game where you see only the good and positive things. It didn’t matter how unfortunate a situation was; Pollyana was able to resolve and face any circumstance with the strongest optimism and joyful determination.

Also, a striking effect of this literary character was also the influence he used to cause on others. Sooner or later, the most greedy, apathetic or sad character would end up surrendered to that sparkling and luminous personality of the girl. Eleanor H. Porter’s books conveyed as we see an absolute sublimation to positivism, something that inspired a couple of psychologists in the 1970s, Drs. Margaret Matlin and David Stang.

How are people who apply the Pollyanna principle?

• In a study published in the 80s, Matlin and Stang were able to see, for example, that people with a clear bias towards positivity, far from what it may seem to us, take much longer to identify unpleasant, dangerous or those stimuli negative events that happen around him. In other words, there is no “blindness” to reality as some may think.
• Pollyana’s principle tells us that being fully aware that there are negative facts and realities in life, one chooses to focus only on the positive. The rest does not matter. Furthermore, even being involved in an event of a negative nature, the person will endeavor to redirect that situation towards a more optimistic way out.

A biased and positive-focused memory

Dr. Steven Novella, renowned neurophysiologist at Yale University has multiple works and studies on what is known as false memory or those storage errors so common in people. Thus, a more than curious fact about the Pollyanna principle, or the positivity bias, is that optimistic people usually do not remember well the negative events of their past.

The quality of your memory is optimal and perfect with every event processed as “positive”. On the other hand, painful or complex events do not store them in the same way because they do not consider them significant.

Positivity and Language Bias: We are all Pollyanna

This data is truly curious. In 2014, Cornell University, New York, conducted a study to find out if our language, in general, tends towards aggressiveness or towards the bias of positivity or the Pollyana principle. Professor Peter Dodds and his team analyzed more than 100,000 words in 10 different languages, even doing in-depth analysis of our social media interactions.

Thus, and however striking our language and the messages we send may seem to us, it has a clearly positive emotional weight. These conclusions coincide with those established by the psychologists Matlin and Stang in the 70s, namely:  people tend towards “pollianismo”

Criticisms at the beginning of Pollyanna

A part of psychologists prefer to speak of the Pollyana Syndrome instead of the Pollyanna Principle. With this change in terminology they seek to draw attention to the limitations or even worrying aspects that this psychological dimension taken to the “extreme” may entail.

For example, if we choose to focus only on that more optimistic side of life, we may show a certain lack of competence when it comes to handling difficult situations. The Pollyanna Principle helps in some moments, it is true. Always having a cheerful and bright vision of things gives us motivation, there is no doubt, but to move through life it is also necessary to know how to walk through negative moments and learn from them.

Our reality includes light and shadow and we cannot always choose the sunnier side.

What are we left with then? Is it advisable or not to follow the philosophy of the Pollyanna principle? The key to everything, as always, is in balance. In that intermediate gaze that clings to the bright side of life but does not close its eyes or shy away from difficulties. Positive psychology, after all, is always inspiring, but sometimes achieving or not succeeding or preventing certain things from happening to us does not depend 100% on the attitude one has.

Not all that glitters is gold, therefore, we must be prepared to cope with any circumstance in the best way, knowing how to deal with lights, shadows and all the gray scales …