In a bad mood? Good for you! Don't you just hate those irritants who go around telling others to smile, cheer up and look on the bright side?
Well, you can safely ignore them now ? because the latest research shows it's great to be grumpy and grand to be a grouch. In fact, bad moods make us more attentive, less gullible and better equipped to make decisions.
Prof. Joe Forgas of the University of New South Wales asked volunteers to watch some films and think about events in their past, putting them in either a good mood or bad mood.
Then, the volunteers were given a series of tests ? like figuring out the truth behind urban legends, or providing an eyewitness account of events. And the professor found that grumps were much better at these tasks than the happy- go-lucky types.
So, frown proudly and ignore the hippy-dippy love-everyone people telling you to smile all the time. They're just trying to bring you down to their level.
Smiling on the inside,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.