Inc.
Research suggests most people would rather hear the bad news first, even though the person sharing it often prefers to soften the blow with something positive.
Why Science Says You Should Always Share the Bad News First, Then the Good News
Author: Jeff Haden
I called my wife about a rental property we built. “There’s good news and bad news,” I said. “The good news is the new tenant wants to start her lease the first of May. The bad news is we have to replace the window sash in the bathroom with one with tempered glass, and the supplier says it won’t arrive until the second week of May.”
“We need a certificate of occupancy before she can move in,” she said. “That’s a problem.”
As was the fact I led with good news, instead of bad.
According to a study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the average person who has both good and bad news to share prefers to share good news first. (The researchers call that tendency “priming emotion-protection,” which is a more sophisticated way of saying “let me grease the skids a little before things get ugly.”
Yet the same study shows the average recipient of good and bad news prefers to get bad news first, if only because that reduces the worry factor: if I know bad news is coming, I’ll dwell on that… and be less likely to take seriously, or pay much attention, to the good news that precedes it.
Maybe that’s because we tend to prefer stories with happy endings. (You probably don’t research to confirm that statement, but here’s a study just in case.)
Or maybe that’s because we prefer to be given possible solutions, instead of having to ask for them. For example, here’s how I could have handled the inspection call:
“There’s good news and bad news,” I could have said. “The bad news is we failed inspection because the bathroom window needs to be tempered glass, and the tenant wants to move in before we can get a new sash from the supplier. I’ve reached out to a couple of other suppliers, and worse comes to worst we could always install a replacement window that Home Depot has in stock. The good news is that’s our only issue — which, since this is the first house we’ve built from the ground up, is pretty awesome.”
Granted, I could have gone the 1) good news, 2) bad news, 3) solution route and maybe gotten to a similar place. But getting the bad news out of the way shifts the focus immediately to the potential solution, and then lets you bask in the glow of the good news once that’s out of the way.
Bit what if I hadn’t come up with a potential solution yet? That would have been okay. My wife excels at problem-solving. She excels at asking smart questions, and making informed decisions. (She decided we should buy the replacement window and have it on site in case we couldn’t find a replacement sash; that way we knew we had a fix in hand.)
The next time you’re tempted to lead with good news, consider what the recipient likely prefers, and deliver bad news first.
Sure, that might feel less comfortable to you, but the overall outcome will probably be better.
And isn’t that what really matters?
Credits: TCA, LLC.