People who are medically depressed have a clearer view of matters
the rest of us are just way too optimistic.
“People in a positive mood generally rely more on their own thoughts and preferences, and pay less attention to the outside world and social norms,” says Forgas.
heard about Forgas new research via Max, my brother in law, from Eugene’s blog:
…negative moods can improve the detection of deception
- reduce judgmental errors (Forgas, 1998),
- improve eyewitness accuracy (Forgas, Vargas, & Laham, 2005),
- and improve interpersonal communication strategies (Forgas, 2007).
- The present experiments confirm this pattern by demonstrating that mild negative moods also increase fairness and sensitivity to the needs of others.
read all about it in the new scientist
Tags: decision making, human development
