The Poliana Syndrome was described in the year 1978 by Margaret Matlin and David Stang as a psychological disorder. According to them, people tend to view past memories always in a positive light.

The brain has a natural tendency to store good, positive information to the detriment of bad, negative events.

But Matlin and Stang were not the first to use this term; that is, in 1969 Boucher and Osgood had already used the term "Polian hypothesis" to refer to the natural tendency to use positive words to communicate.

Who is Poliana

The origin of the term Poliana syndrome In this novel, the North American author tells the story of an orphan girl who gives her name to the story.

Poliana is an eleven-year-old girl who, after losing her father, has to live with an evil aunt she didn't know. In this sense, the girl's life becomes problematic on several levels.

So, in order not to face the problems she was facing, Poliana started to use the "contentment game". This game basically consisted in seeing a positive side in everything, even in the most difficult situations.

The game of contentment

To get rid of the mistreatment by her rich and severe aunt, Poliana decides to play this game as a way to escape the new reality she was living.

In this sense, "The game is exactly to find, in everything, something to be glad about, no matter what [...] In everything there is always a good thing to be grateful for if you look hard enough to find out where it is..."

"Once I had asked for dolls and got crutches, but I was happy because I didn't need them. "Excerpts from the book Poliana.

Optimism is contagious

In the story, Poliana goes to live in a very lonely basement, but never loses her optimism. She creates a very close relationship with the servants in her aunt's house.

Little by little she gets to know the whole neighborhood and brings good humor and optimism to all of them. At a certain point, even her aunt is infected by Poliana's attitudes.

At a certain point the girl has a serious accident that leaves her in doubt about the power of optimism. But let's stop here so as not to give any more spoilers.

The Poliana Syndrome

It is worth pointing out that this character is what led the psychologists Matlin and Stang to analyze the influence of exaggerated positive thinking in our lives. Polianism.

In a study released in the 1980s they concluded that extremely positive people take much longer to identify unpleasant, dangerous, and sad events.

In other words, it is as if there is a detachment from reality, a kind of momentary blindness, but not permanent. In other words, it is as if the individual chooses to see only the positive side of every situation.

Focus only on the positive

People who have the Poliana syndrome or so-called positivity bias, have a great difficulty in storing negative memories from their past, be they traumas, pain, or losses.

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For these people, their memories always appear softer, that is, their memories are always positive and perfect. This is because for them negative events are not considered significant.

One branch of psychology tries to take this approach in its treatment, but this bias is questionable, mainly because the "rose-colored glasses" used to alleviate the problems do not always work.

The problem of positivity bias

Although many professionals use this method of positivity, of looking at all problems in a positive light, others do not view this in a positive light. This is because focusing exclusively on a 100% optimistic life can cause problems in coping with daily difficulties.

Polyanism can help in many cases, and sometimes it is essential to have an optimistic outlook. However, life is also made of sad and difficult moments, so it is essential to know how to deal with them.

Polianism in the social networks

With the rise of the Internet and the emergence of social networks, we have noticed that the positivity bias is increasingly used in these networks.

On social media like Instagram, Pinterest and even LinkedIn, people always try to post positive messages and photos so that everyone thinks that this is their reality 100% of the time, however we know that this is not always the case.

This has been a real problem, because instead of stimulating and inspiring others, this "fake" positivity has brought more and more anxiety and an exacerbated search for unattainable perfection.

We all have a little Poliana

American psychologists Charles Osgood and Boucher were the first to use the term Pollyanna to define the use of positive words in our communication.

Recently the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published a study stating that we do have a preference for optimistic-sounding terms and words.

With the help of the internet, social networks, movies, and novels, the researchers concluded that this is a natural tendency for everyone. The Portuguese spoken in Brazil was found to be one of the most optimistic.

About the name

The name Pollyana as written in the original publication is the joining of the English names Polly and Anna, meaning "sovereign lady full of grace" or "one who is pure and gracious."

This name became popular with the book Pollyanna, published in 1913 by American author Eleanor H. Porter.

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The development of the name Poliana

After the tremendous success of Porter's publication, the term Pollyana became an entry in the Cambridge dictionary. In that sense, it remained:

• Pollyanna: a person who believes that good things are more likely to happen than bad things, even when it is very unlikely.

Being polian

Also, in the English language there are some terms such as:

• "be a pollyanna about...", which means to be extremely optimistic about something.
• "Stop being a pollyanna about the final tests.
• "We cannot be a Pollyanna about our future together.
• "I used to be a Pollyanna about people.

Facing Difficulties

The theory of positivity is very inspiring and can help you in difficult situations. However it is important to understand that life is made of ups and downs, bad things happen and it is part of everyone's life to face them.

Not everything is 100% under our control, it is up to us to know how to manage the moments of crisis and understand that difficult moments are also part of human nature.

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