Did you know that there are only two types of people in the world: Promotion-focused and Prevention-focused? That’s the gist of this fascinating book called “FOCUS” by Heidi Grant Halvorson and E. Tori Higgins, a couple of Ph.Ds from Columbia University’s Motivation Science Center. According to the authors, some people, as the old song goes, “accentuate the positive.” They see their goals as opportunities for gain and advancement. In other words, they are focused on benefits and rewards. They play to win. The are promotion focused. They respond best to optimism and praise, are more likely to take chances and seize opportunities, and excel at creativity and innovation. But they are also more prone to error, less likely to completely think things through, and usually unprepared with a plan B in case things fail. They would rather say “YES!” and have it blow up in their faces than feel like they let an opportunity slip away.
Others focus on meeting their responsibilities and staying safe. They don’t play to win—they play to not lose. They want, more than anything else, to feel secure. The authors call this prevention focused. These types are driven by the looming possibility of failure more than by applause. They are often more conservative and don’t take chances, but their work is also more thorough, accurate, and carefully planned. For the prevention focused, the ultimate loss is a loss they failed to stop, a danger they failed to avoid. They would much prefer to say “NO.” to an opportunity, rather than end up in hot water.
Which focus is best? NEITHER! There are times for both. The key is to remember that we all have both motivations within and can tap into those motivations at will. To be maximally effective, they say you’re going to want to match your outlook to the activity or task at hand. Think of your focus not as traits but as tools. For example, do you want to lose weight and keep it off? You’ll need both promotion and prevention motivations. Promotion mindedness supplies eager enthusiasm when you’re getting started. But eagerness is pretty useless when what you really need is vigilance to keep going after the fun fades. So if you are someone who is a strong starter but finds that over time, without realizing it, all the gains you’ve made have ended, you probably need a dose of prevention thinking. If, on the other hand, you can’t seem to get yourself psyched up to tackle the challenge in the first place, a little promotion focus is just what the doctor called for.
I’ve barely scratched the surface here. I definitely recommend this book as a unique look at our psychological focus and what motivates us to succeed.
