Reviews

The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It by Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney

miguelf's review

2.0

This book serves as a cross between a synopsis of long held psychological observations and a mix of some techno-optimist reflections pulled from folks like Steven Pinker: that negative, or “bad”, thoughts can be overwhelming and that in actuality the world is a much better place that we think it to be. A good number of examples are given in the first few sections to back up this thesis. Fair enough. It reads for the most part like a book that a corporate manager would hand out to their underlings to read and absorb as there are some tidbits about how being positive can serve one well in business sectors such as the service industry. It’s all pretty innocuous until it goes off the rails at the end and there’s a longish section about how the concern over nicotine addiction has been totally overblown – it’s just that pesky ‘negative’ thinking and that the harms of smoking are all in the tar. Wait, what?!? And then there’s the doubling down on the twisted observation made on GMO’s: while GMO’s might not be as harmful as their fiercest opponents make them out to be, the unthoughtful brushing asides of all concerns comes across as really petty in its expression here. And finally putting Georg Gilder on a pedestal is just wrong: most of his overrated predictions turned out to be bunk. Thankfully it’s not overlong.

ruthbrarian's review

Shares some interesting and useful work on psychology which helps augment what I knew from cognitive behavioral therapy. Low rating for the chapters which uncritically relied on Chicago School work and Heritage Foundation scholarship and left me unable to trust much of the rest. While Tierney does a good job in debunking some other single-cause bogeymen for things like bad grades, he then turns right around and accepts the idea that the problem with schools is we want to be too nice to students instead of looking at how the problems he describes are combined with systemic defunding, racism, etc. He doesn't even seem to notice how the racial achievement gap between students coincides with the 90s shift in policing/jails after the crime bill and how the upping of the war on drugs affected home lives and families, as well as schools and systems.

That's just one example. Also cites Pinker. Yikes. Am I being a classic example of the mean reviewer trying to sound smart? Maybe, but it's also a DNF for me and I wanted to spell out why this book, which has some promising aspects, is also dangerously simplistic and single solution-ey just like some of the ideas he debunks.

Some highlights: excellent correction of the misuse of the "bad apple" term, some interesting stuff on online reviews (yes, the irony is not lost on me) and how people can respond, and the power of bad in relationships is worth chewing on.

If you find the subject interesting, I would say it's a pretty easy read and you can jump around to focus on areas that interest you -- but keep quite a few grains of salt on hand and think of it as another tool in your mental health box which may come in handy.

Edited to add a quote from another reviewer which captures the heart of things for me:

"Facebook is NOT better than i fear it is, primarily full of happy memories. Or maybe, to use the authors’ illustration, it only takes a few genocidaire bad apples to spoil the whole barrel of grandchildren’s birthdays."

When tools like Facebook are used to promote hatred of immigrants or things like the Rohingya Genocide, it is actually a pretty big deal with lasting damage.