Being Grumpy Makes You More Awesome

Professor Joe Forgas, an Australian psychological researcher, has found evidence that crabby people are clearer-thinking, better decision-makers, and less gullible than their cheerful counterparts. He asked volunteers to watch different films and to dwell on either negative or positive events in their lives. The subjects were then put through a battery of exercises designed to measure mental acuity, including judging the truth of urban myths and providing eyewitness accounts of events. Those volunteers in a bad mood were found to make fewer mistakes than those in a good mood and were shown to be better communicators. Says Prof. Forgas, "Negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world." Similarly, Forgas' earlier research on the psychological effects of weather shows that on wet, dreary days memory is sharpened, whereas on bright, sunny days people tend to be more forgetful.

I find Prof. Forgas' conclusions unsurprising, yet extremely validating. Happiness to me has always seemed something of a drug--it is all right in small doses, but no one is meant to be happy all the time. How many failed marriages, bad business decisions, unwise sexual encounters, etc. have occurred due to the brain-scrambling effects of excessive happiness? Our culture is obsessed with the idea of perma-happiness, as demonstrated by the massive over-use of Prozac and other anti-depressant medications. (Just a note: if you don't have a chemical imbalance,they ain't gonna work for you). People are in a constant quest to acquire the newest gadget, date the hottest chick/dude, buy a bigger house, a more expensive car,all just to get that momentary fix of happiness. But they miss the point--happiness is supposed to be fleeting, otherwise we would be unable to make meaningful and good decisions that ensure our survival and bring us security and satisfaction (which is NOT the same as happiness).

I'm by no means advocating that everyone walk around being assholes to everybody else. I only mean to say that it's OK to be in a pissy mood from time to time and, in fact, that it's actually beneficial to our survival. Experiencing negative moods means we acknowledge reality and shows our awareness of the world around us. Happiness in moderation, folks. All things in moderation.