Question: Why is most of the time easier to remember little bad things that have happened rather than good things?

Nadine Mirza answered on 9 Nov 2018: last edited 9 Nov 2018 11:59 pm

This is one of the theories I’ve read about which makes sense!
The idea is that our brain is wired to think negatively.
Back when humans were cavemen and cavewoman thinking negatively could save your life! Always worrying about some giant cat eating you, or certain plants being poisonous, or not trusting your fellow caveman who might club you in your sleep. These thoughts kept one alert and always on the look out for danger cause there really was danger everywhere!
But, over the centuries and centuries that humankind evolved and made safer environments for themselves, they were able to start enjoying things, to relax once in a while, and form friendships. We began to think positively, which was new to our brain, something it wasn’t naturally wired to do.
That’s why the idea is that we have to put in a little extra effort to think or remember good things, instead of defaulting to the bad things.
Another idea, specifically about remembering, says that when we have really strong emotions during an experience our brain stores that memory in a different and more stronger way. Because the really strong emotions we tend to have related to some events are fear or sadness, our brain records those events better and thus we remember them easier. There’s a much better explanation of this here: https://www.livescience.com/1827-bad-memories-stick-good.html