🔔This newly discovered bias drives conflict at work (...and beyond)

New research, published in Nature Human Behavior, offers striking insights.

The negativity bias is a bias in making social judgements of how we believe ‘they’ see ‘our’ behavior.

In other words, people not only have stereotypes of what other people are like, they also have stereotypes of what other people believe about them.

People tend to attribute “as negative as possible” beliefs to the other side, be it a fellow worker, their boss, another team, or another company.

As a result, even though people are much more willing to work together, they resist trying because they think those on the other side—and even those within their own group—will not play along.

These biased beliefs shape behavior and contribute to conflict.

There’s a silver lining, however.

The negativity bias arises in competitive settings, but not in cooperative contexts.

And this provides an avenue for reducing its negative effects:

“In the context of teams or negotiations, adopting a competitive mindset can lead to undue pessimism about how others feel. These inaccurate beliefs can lead to missed business opportunities. But if those contexts are reframed as cooperative, accurately forecasting how someone across the table might respond to a particular proposal becomes easier.”

The takeaway?

1. Make people aware of this bias

2. Reframe the context to de-bias and reduce inaccurate judgments

3. Open mindedness and Coachability are critical skills in collaborating and achieving results

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