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
James Ezekiel Porter Weld, Maine in Porter's home county was named in his honor as well. One of Porter's personal Smith & Wesson revolvers that he carried while on duty is in the collections at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. James E. Porter was featured as a character in Donald F. Myers' novel entitled "Custer's Gatling Guns: What If He Had Taken His Machine Guns to the Little Bighorn?" and also in Frederick J. Chiaventone's "A Road We Do Not Know: A Novel of Custer at Little Bighorn" and Romain Wilhelmsen's "The Curse of Destiny: The Betrayal of General George Armstrong ..." James