Pollyanna principle Pollyanna principle The Pollyanna principle (also called Pollyannaism or positivity bias) is the tendency for people to remember pleasant items more accurately than unpleasant ones. Research indicates that at the subconscious level, the mind has a tendency to focus on the optimistic; while at the conscious level, it has a tendency to focus on the negative. This subconscious bias towards the positive is often described as the Pollyanna principle and is similar to the Forer effect. The name derives from the 1913 novel "Pollyanna" by Eleanor H. Porter describing a girl who plays the "glad game"—trying to find something to
Gene Stratton-Porter while she supervised construction of her home at Sylvan Lake in Noble County, Indiana, and she described it as her most autobiographical novel. The narrative is told in the first person by the twelfth child of the "Stanton" family. The title character is modeled after Stratton-Porter's deceased older brother, Leander, whom Stratton-Porter nicknamed Laddie. As in Stratton-Porter's own family, Laddie is connected with the land and identifies with their father's vocation of farming. "Michael O'Halloran" (1915), her seventh novel, was inspired by a newsboy she had encountered at Philadelphia, while visiting her daughter, Jeannette, and her family. "A Daughter of