A marriage with 5x more positivity than negativity is significantly less likely to result in divorce.1
A business team with 5x more positivity than negativity is significantly more likely to make money.2
College students with 3x more positivity than negativity are significantly more likely to have flourishing mental health.3
In general – when a human system contains 3 to 5x as much positivity as negativity, it is significantly more likely to thrive.
What this means, is that it is sometimes possible to reduce the complexity of human emotion into useful prediction: flourish or flounder.
Just as important, this complexity can be assessed with a quick, 20-question quiz.
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Looking back over the past 24 hours, indicate the greatest amount that you have experienced of each of the following feelings
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What does that number mean?
If your ratio is below 1.0, you may be caught in a downward spiral of stress and negativity. You may even be depressed.
If your ratio is between 1.5 and 2.5 – that’s normal. You life has more positivity than negativity, but not by a margin large enough to trigger an upward spiral.
If your ratio is between 3 and 5, you’ve hit the sweet spot.
If your ratio is above 9, you’re approaching a danger zone – one with too much positivity and not enough reality.
You shouldn’t read too much into your score, because there are grey zones between the classifications, the results of a single day can be unrepresentative, and different ratios are optimal for different people at different times.
But the positivity ratio is my measure of choice for mental health – much like how some people measure blood pressure or cholesterol to keep track of their heart health, starting last month I have been measuring my positivity ratio daily in order to keep track of my mental health.
I will continue to do so until my ratio stabilizes above 3.0.
The many benefits of positivity.
During a four year study of married couples, those who started out with a positivity ratio below 1.0 were three times more likely to consider divorce, twice as likely to get separated, and two-and-a-half times as likely to get divorced as couples with a ratio above 5.0.1
During a study of business teams, those with a positivity ratio above 5.0 were found to more readily alternate between advocating their own beliefs, asking questions about the beliefs of others, talking about themselves, and talking about others. Those with a ratio below 1.0 predominantly talked about themselves and their own ideas. The result: lower profitability for their business team, lower customer satisfaction, and lower assessments by superiors, peers, and subordinates.2
During dozens of experimental studies which raised the positivity ratio of participants, increased positivity led to increased productivity, social capital, mental health, and physical health.4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21
A positivity ratio above 3.0 can’t cure cancer, but it can offer a tremendous life advantage.
This post summarizes the 31 benefits of gratitude, which matches up well with the many benefits of positivity.
This page contains what I believe to be the most time-effective method of raising one’s positivity ratio.
This free eBook contains what I believe to be the 16 most effect methods of raising one’s positivity ratio.
This page contains more studies relevant to the positivity ratio.
What’s so special about the number 3.0?
Why do we need so much more positivity than negativity to get all of those benefits?
In economics, it’s called prospect theory. In English – we feel our losses much stronger than our gains.
Yesterday, a friend complimented my writings on this blog – my mood was elevated for two hours. Last month, a friend said the opposite, that I was wasting my time and spewing nonsense. It depressed my mood for a few days.
You receive a raise at work – you’re happy for a few days, maybe a week or two. You receive a paycut – I imagine you’ll be dejected, furious, or both for at least a few weeks.
Because we respond disproportionately to negativity, it takes 3x more positivity than negativity to fully replace anxiety with feelings of safety.
That’s why having a high positivity ratio increases your chances of flourishing.
Broaden-and-Build baby.
Why do we need emotion? Thousands of years ago, it got us to do things which kept us alive and our genes propagating.
Without fear, humans would have been unable to react fast enough.
Without anger, humans would not have had sufficient motivation to adequately punish crime. Can you imagine dispassionately assaulting someone? I can’t. Remember, we’re talking about thousands of years ago – they didn’t have police and jails back then.
Each negative emotion has a set of functions which cause immediate changes in behavior. Positive emotion has a more complex role.
If caveman Joe spent all of his time strengthening his social relationships, he’d go hungry and die. But if he spent all of his time gathering food, when he got sick he’d have no one to take care of him – once again, he’d die.
Both have to happen for him to survive – he needs both friends and food.
Because long-term investment, like playing, making friends, exercising, being optimistic, exploring, and learning new skills are all calorically expensive, Joe’s body needed a signal which would help him know when he should go gathering, and when he should go investing.
That signal was positive emotion. From Barbara Fredrickson’s paper, Beyond the Moment:
When we are in a state of relative safety and satiety—when there are few threats demanding intense, narrowed attention—positive emotions allow us to pursue our long-term interests. In our ancestors, transitory states of positive emotions led to behavior that may seem pointless or extravagant from the perspective of immediate survival, but that perhaps conferred serious advantages in the long term.
A positivity ratio above 3.0 signaled safety and satiety – that Joe was surrounded by friends, healthy, had a stockpile of food, and that now was the best time to make long-term investments.
That is the function of positive emotion – to tell the body, now is the time – you are safe, so you can stop worrying about the day-to-day worries of the present, and go make true your dreams of the future.
This isn’t a pet theory of mine – this is one of the most cited findings in the field of psychology, having been referenced by nearly 4,000 papers in the 10 years since it was published (the average paper is referenced just 10 times)22.
Which is all well and good, but why talk about all of this theory?
Because I want to make this point – positive emotion is vestigial. Not undesirable or ignorable, like an appendix (after all, what would life be like without positive emotion?), but vestigial. It has lost it’s original function.
Like how wisdom teeth are now more a bother than a blessing, I believe the main biological function of positive emotion has been made near useless by the modern world.
We’re all safe; we’re all sated.
For most of us, there are no tigers or food shortages lurking around the corner. None.
For most of us, lack of positive emotion is no reason not to seek out new friends or to learn new skills. In fact, to let a lack of positivity restrict our growth behavior is counterproductive. The fastest path to happiness is to do those things which are usually done when one is happy (e.g. spend time with friends and family, develop hobbies, help others, etc…).
Just as important, the modern world demands constant long-term investment, whether we have a high positivity ratio or not. For those who wish to rise to the top, the benefits of positivity are no benefits, but requirements, to be faked or forced as necessary.
Don’t feel like networking? Too bad. Don’t feel like keeping your skills up-to-date? Too bad. Don’t feel like saving? Too bad.
If this were Tony Robbin’s blog, this would be the part where I would tell you to man up and work hard every day, whether you feel like it or not.
But this is my blog, so instead, I’ll say this:
Positive emotion has lost its primary biological function.
So do with it whatever you want. Be content. Strive for more. Wait until you’ve got a family, great job, and a big house. Seize your happiness advantage now.
Whatever.
I think you know my choice. What’s yours?
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, mine was pretty terrible! But I think that’s because the last 24 hours have been unusually stressful. So 3x that, only positive, will fix it? Anybody got a million bucks?
I think it’s a good idea though, to measure the positivity ratio daily…Then you could get a bigger picture of what’s going on. I think I’ll do that. Expect at least one daily visit from me. =)
p.s. I hope all is well, been a while!
I feel ya Kaylee. My score today was a 1.25. But on average, all is well.
If you plan on trying this out and want a place to keep track of your score, I recommend http://www.positivityratio.com/single.php . The quiz is the same (this is the website of the wonderful lady who did most of the research I referenced in the post), but her website keeps track of your score.
Good to see you’re still alive
I scored a 4.25!!!!
Coolest survey I have taken in a long time!
Shared!
Wow Coach, that’s pretty awesome!
I’ve never scored that high. I guess you’re a HappierHuman than me
Hey – I’m in the sweet spot! And I do recognize all my blessings by feeling safe, loved and contented. It doesn’t mean I don’t strive to fulfill dreams, work down debt or have any problems. This was a GREAT post! I really enjoyed the quiz and your thoughts on the subject. I am seizing my happiness every day. Thanks.
That’s great Jane!
Yes, exactly – that’s how I feel; happiness should be pursued in tangent to the rest of life, not be dependent on it or be it’s only purpose.
Amit, that is the weirdest conclusion I’ve ever seen. I think. You list all of these great benefits to positive emotions and then end by saying it’s lost its primary biological function?
You’re a funny little nut.
But that makes me smile. And THAT creates positive emotions!
Funny little nut? I wasn’t really going for that effect…
Perhaps my word choice is bad? I mean to say, I think it would be best if we were able to always (or at least more frequently) have activated the broaden-and-build tendency. Right now, positive emotion serves as the bottleneck –> no positive emotion, no broaden-and-build. In my ideal world that doesn’t exist, the broaden-and-build would get activated on command, rather than needing to go through the intermediary of positive emotion.
I know, I probably shouldn’t be so patronizing as to call you “little.” How about just nut?
I see what you’re trying to say now; thanks for clarifying!
Wow, what a post!
The fact that the divorce rate is so high is very telling about how happy most of us are.
I’m happy to say that my number was 5, but I know that number would have been much lower 2 years ago – not having to go to a horrible J.O.B. has a lot to do with it!
I’m going to bookmark this and come back once in a while to check my number
A 5? That’s fantastic! Also fantastic that you no longer have a horrible job!
Yup – I believe if we can be more happy, divorce will become less likely. Coming from a background where arranged marriages are common (my parents and grandparents, not me!!), I think compatibility is definitely nice, but not the most important factor in relationship success.
**Gulp**
Bad news Amit. I’m too positive. Like, borderline “there’s something wrong with me” positive. And I like your veiled attempt to talk about how Joel is so paleo (i.e. caveman) that you came up with the caveman Joe(l) idea. It’s probably all just in my head, like this comment is the blog version of listening to the song “You’re So Vein” by Carly Simon.
The good news is I got a higher score than Coach Comeback on something. That may be a first!
LOL
Yeah… it’s all in your head…
I didn’t know that you were into paleo. But perhaps I subconsciously knew that and subconsciously chose Joe(l)? o.O
I might come back and do the test in a couple of days as the 24 hours prior to now have had a stressful event.
I am about to go off into the wilderness for a couple of days, I am sure when I come back I will get a different result than doing it now.
Your posts are so creative.
Thanks Priska! Enjoy your wilderness!
Hi Amit,
My score was borderline. I’ll have to take that test on a better day
I had a great time reading this.
My sense is that the biological response serves as a guide to the individual, especially in determining how we interact in groups, and that this has been distorted through a first world bubble, to the point that our lives are very abstracted in many senses.
I suppose when our unsustainable modern lifestyle falls apart that biological factor will become relevant again very quickly.
A first world bubble? That’s a great way of putting it. Our lives are very abstracted, but also very free – within limits, we have the opportunity to do so many different things.
“I suppose when our unsustainable modern lifestyle falls apart”
Do you think that’s going to happen? I sort of just subconsciously hoped that continued technological progress would fix our growing sustainability problems. But perhaps that’s too naive…
Amit:
This was a fascinating read. And I loved the test. I especially love that it called me “normal!”
Well done!
Well of course! Did you ever have any suspicion that you were anything but ‘normal’?
Ha.
That all depends on who you ask!
you are right
when we become more positive the world smiles back to us in return
thanks for the post
Yes, I think it’s great that we live in a world that rewards positivity, rather than negativity.
Thanks for dropping by farouk!
mine was 1,75…which is normal… and that partly upset me (so the score decreased I guess as result
) because I do not like anything normal 
Nice and as always interesting post!
Thanks Ani!
My score was normal too, but not for long!
As usual a lot of great information! My score was not too bad, I was kind of expecting higher though. I even had a super duper day today!
I love being happy, I love what I do, I wish I could spend more time doing it!
I know how you feel – my average score is in the upper normal range and has been on a slow trend upwards, but you’d expect someone who blogs about happiness to have a score 2 to 3x higher.
The quiz penalizes people for negativity more strongly than it gives points for positivity, to reflect reality, so at least for me, who has a natural disposition for negativity, my scores on super duper days are barely higher than the scores of normal people on normal days.
But you seem like a super positive person. So score be damned!
Fun quiz. I thought I’d score higher because I consider myself a generally positive person, but I was honest about the “a little bits” on several of the more negative emotions. After all they do pop up from time to time. So I scored just in the ‘normal’ range. Gotta up that – go for those ‘extreme’s in the joy department!
I’d always considered it to be beneficial to just be a little more positive than negative. Interesting statistics you cite about the huge improvements those big ratio differences bring. 3 to 5X more positive is what I’m shooting for now! Doesn’t matter to me whether it’s lost its primary function – I believe a positive emotional state is worth striving for because, well – it just makes life so much more fun!
Yes! Extremes in the joy department are the best!
“Doesn’t matter to me whether it’s lost its primary function – I believe a positive emotional state is worth striving for because, well – it just makes life so much more fun!”
I think I may not have communicated it well, but that was my main point! Our intuitions about happiness are drawn from our culture, which in turn are drawn from a combination of factors… one of which is our biology (e.g. our intuition that incest is bad comes from the biological reality that children born from relatives are less likely to survive).
So our intuitions that happiness must be earned, come at the end of the journey, etc… are partly drawn from our biology, which I believe is no longer relevant. In other words, I’m trying to challenge those intuitions.
WOOHOO! 4.25 for me! Right in the sweet spot. The good news is that my last 24 hours is like most of my other days.
The bad news and how it affects you makes a lot of sense. I think since you expect to do well, as a positive person, when someone tells you negative news, it’s kind of like being blind-sided. Whereas, when someone tells you good news, it’s unexpected to receive but as a positive person, you expected good things anyways.
But for you Amit, I say keep researching and writing these beautiful articles. As a business person like myself and blog writer myself, I have been told many, many times that it’s more important to impress and give great content to the one’s who do care about your stuff than trying to please the one’s that don’t. In other words, it’s better to have 5 loyal readers who love to talk about your stuff than 50 people who just glance over your articles every now and then.
So, stay positive but NOT too positive.
WOOHOO indeed! That’s a great score John
The temptation to take shortcuts is quiet large for me sometimes… so thank you for that advice!
Hello Amit,
I have just returned from my commune with nature and no internet connection for three days.
I did the test and came out ‘normal’. Though it is nice to be normal I was hoping that I’d found my sweet spot.
This is brilliant! Where did you get it from? I knew I’d be in the flourish zone (5) – and only b/c of what I learned about the 3 Principles of Mind, Thought and Consciousness… before learning that I spent most of my time in the danger zone without realizing that my own thinking had anything to do with it!
Wow, what an informative article. So well researched. And is, like all of the psychological research papers, going to be referenced by me on at least one positive article. You are learning knew skills everyday and so am I thanks to you, and we will benefit from it. As to the survey, I am grateful that I came out normal. I always knew that about myself but things with my health have been rocky and as a result, frustrating to tell you the truth. On the flip side, I has a birthday yesterday which thanks to a crowd of the best friends anyone could dream of, was a very happy day for me. I took the test to see, with these, extremes, how I would flesh out. Perfectly normal thank you very much. But it shows me that I need to take it on a regular basis. The two possibly weighing each other out to came back to a normal score. But, as you mentioned, just like blood pressure, need to check it often. Thank you.
I’m grateful it came out normal for you as well, and happy belated birthday!
I’m glad your health hasn’t brought down your mood (too much) with it. When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 6 years ago, it took a while for my mood to rebound. It still suffers every now and again because of it, but resilience for the win!
Oh I got a score of 1.25, but I expected somewhere around 3. I doubt measurement because I am happier than what I got from the test…
Ankita – I won’t argue with you there. Tests can be wrong. In this case, this test is most accurate for white college students. For everyone else… you can only hope. My guess is that your interpretation of the questions is different from most people – as an Indian America, I’ve sometimes had similar problems. Thanks for giving it a try though
Interesting Survey. I am just shy of normal today 1.25. That will improve I’m sure.
It will! As long as you’re doing something to improve the number – working on your relationships, getting healthier, learning happiness skills, etc… there will be improvement
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