What it sounds like
- Ten people compliment you, one person criticizes you, and your brain builds a shrine to the criticism.
- You receive ten kind comments and one critique; your brain gives the critique a corner office.
Cognitive distortion
Mental Filtering
Focusing only on the negative and ignoring the positive.
Classic tell: Ten people compliment you, one person criticizes you, and your brain builds a shrine to the criticism.
Back to the guideFurther explanation
What is happening underneath?
Focusing only on the negative and ignoring the positive.
The mind strains out everything neutral or good and serves only the negative sediment. The picture may contain truth, but not the whole truth.
How to tell
- Positive evidence is technically present but emotionally unavailable.
Why people use it
- Threat monitoring is trying to keep you safe, but it has terrible taste in balance.
How to respond
- Ask: "What facts am I filtering out because they do not match the mood?"
Manipulation watch
How this gets used on people.
- News and campaign content can train attention toward threat until audiences see danger as the only real category.