grumpy

With all the bad news we hear every day, it’s no wonder we get grumpy! Thank goodness being grumpy is good, and it’s even good for your health! A psychologist has discovered that being grumpy makes people think more clearly.

Grumpy people are much better at making decisions than happy people, who are far more gullible. BBC News quotes psychologist Joe Forgas as saying, “Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world. A mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style.”
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A few months ago, we put up a story saying that being grumpy is good because grumpy old folks live longer. This contradicted an earlier story saying that people get nicer as they get older. It turns out that grumpy people be less likely to become victims of dementia as they age?in fact, being disagreeable now may predict increased intelligence later in life.

Previous investigations of this studied mainly young adults, but a new study compared both young and older adults, whose ages ranged from 19 to 89 and who had similar personality traits, in order to try to determine what personality traits predict intelligence. The conclusion, alas, is that grumpy is good.

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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