Casting Our Light on the Positive

I’ll continue with some observations from the book Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins by Michael Quinion. As I noted last time, Quinion in his Introduction echoes some themes I’ve been developing in The Daily Improviser blog.

In my previous article, I cited Quinion’s assessment of why erroneous explanations of word origins tend to stick in people’s minds. As he says, “We’re suckers for a really good story” – i.e., our interest is naturally drawn to piquant tales of how a certain turn of phrase came to be, regardless of the accuracy of the account. The entertainment value of such stories thus tends to overshadow the more mundane (but correct) explanations for the phrase’s evolution.

But Quinion also cites a further reason for why inaccuracy trumps accuracy in the world of etymology:

“Back in Elizabethan times, an early economist called Sir Thomas Gresham promulgated the rule that ‘bad money drives out good’ – that good-quality coins mixed with debased ones will be hoarded or exported, leaving only the rubbish in circulation. It’s much the same with etymology, alas. Only an etymologist could or would be expected to take the time to exhaustively research the history and evidence behind such stories, and in these days of electronic communications an entertaining but false word history will race twice round the world before the etymologist has had time to put fingers to keyboard.”

Quinion’s observation sounds remarkably similar to the point made by Chip and Dan Heath (in their book Made to Stick) about the mechanics behind the persistence of Urban Legends in the public consciousness. Citing the elements that make Urban Legends “sticky” – details, cited (and uncorroborated) authorities, the wildfire effect of the Internet – the Heaths conclude: “Good ideas often have a hard time succeeding in the world.”

The examples cited by Quinion and the Heaths represent another example of a general maxim I cited earlier: Bad is often stronger than good. This of course is not a value judgment but an acknowledgment of the relative strength and impact of (say) bad news vs. good news. (Another example I’ve cited: Barbara Fredrickson’s 3 to 1 Positivity Ratio concept, which holds that we need to actively cultivate 3 positive emotions to overcome a single negative emotion.)

I think that each of these diverse examples reminds us of the importance of being mindful of the positive aspects of our lives – and the need to be continually vigilant in the face of the natural power of the negative.