Bad Mood helps to Make Practical Decisions

Negative emotions promote critical thinking. Such conclusion was made by a group of Australian scientists led by a professor of the University of New South Wales, Joseph Forgas .The scientists showed the participants of the experiment respective films in order to to increase or decrease their mood.
During one of the experiments the volunteers were suggested to express their opinion on several “urban legends” and rumors. Turns out that those of the experiment participants who had a bad mood, were less inclined to believe in the information heard than those, who were in a pretty high mood.
The researchers came to the conclusion that in case of a bad mood, people are less inclined to make spontaneous decisions. In addition, the experiment participants, who had negative emotions, were justifying their answers in a more detailed way and were making fewer inaccuracies when describing certain cases.
According to Forgas, the results of the survey indicate that negative mood leads to more attentive and serious attitude towards the information, as well as it helps to make more practical decisions.