Why we focus on the wrong things & how to stop
Hi there,
I have a confession: I’m an overthinker.
I tend to get preoccupied with distracting or unhelpful thoughts. They get a lot more time and attention than they deserve.
I wanted to find out why this happens - and how to stop.
Why we focus on some things more than others
Our attention is finite.
We can only focus on so many things, and sometimes our attention is concentrated on a certain option at the expense of others. This is a cognitive bias known as attentional bias.
Attentional bias impacts our decision making.
Being overly focused on one thing leads us to overvalue its importance when it comes to making decisions. When people talk about attentional bias, it’s often in the context of addition (smoking, alcohol, drugs, etc). People with an addiction tend to fixate on the substance above all else.
But there are more subtle ways that attentional bias affects our everyday lives.
Focusing on threats
Certain conditions can characterise how our attention is biased.
People with depression have an attentional bias towards the negative rather than positive aspects of a situation.
People with anxiety tend to focus on things that are perceived as dangerous. We aren’t actually in danger, but our monkey brains interprets situations in this way. Once upon a time, this might have provided an evolutionary advantage. Being highly conscious of threats means you’re less likely to get killed by a sabertooth tiger or neighbouring tribe.
These days, being on a constant lookout for danger is less of an advantage, and can cause feelings of anxiety.
Focusing on food
We have an evolutionary attentional bias towards food.
This came about because at one point in time it would have helped us survive. Again, this isn’t necessarily useful anymore. For those of us reading this, accessing food is no longer difficult.
But this bias still impacts our decision-making.
One example is when we go shopping hungry. Our attention is biased toward food, so it becomes harder to avoid simple carbs that will quickly satisfy our hunger - like crisps and biscuits.
Reclaiming your focus
It’s difficult to avoid attentional bias. Some of the influences on our attention are deeply ingrained.
One way to reclaim our focus is to use systems in situations where we know we have attentional bias. For example, avoiding shopping when hungry.
Another method is attention training.
Studies have shown that attention training can help us focus less on the negative, which allows us to better manage our mood. It’s a cycle (known as the broaden and build theory): focusing your attention on the positive puts you in a positive mood, which then leads you to broaden your attention and open your mind, allowing you to create more positive aspects to your life.
Being able to better control our attention might help to improve symptoms of anxiety (by reducing the focus on the threat) or depression (by focusing less on the negative).
Research also suggests that people who are more focused on the positive are more resilient to stress.
Positive attention training is possible in a lab setting, but how do we do this in our everyday life?
Mindfulness and meditation practice have been shown to minimise attention bias.
I’ve unsuccessfully attempted meditation several times in the past, so I wasn’t thrilled to discover that this seems to be the main practical solution to controlling our attention.
I wonder if we can reclaim our focus in other ways. Perhaps it’s helpful for others to point out our biases to help us recognise them. Or to deliberately create moments of happiness and concentrate on the positives in the world around us, in our own version of attention training.
With that, my question this week: how can you build positive emotions into your life?
Link of the week
Can we collaborate with AI to inspire creativity?
This narrative device app generates the first few sentences of a story based on two themes. It’s a potentially useful tool for writers struggling for inspiration. And it’s fun to see what the AI comes up with.
Here’s one created using the themes ‘tortoise’ and ‘bank holiday’:
The tortoise and the bank holiday were having a conversation. "How come we don't have a bank holiday on the same day as the Earth?" asked the tortoise. "There's a reason," said the bank holiday. "People would be so busy trying to get money out of the bank that they wouldn't have time to enjoy the rest of the day."
Love it! 😂
That’s all for now. Have a great week!