Sunday, October 3, 2004

Ah-HAH!

People want to know (well, some people anyway) why I am CrankyBeach.

Well... now science has proven that we cranky types make more reliable eyewitnesses, show better critical thinking skills, and exercise superior thinking and communication skills.

In one experiment, researchers at the Sydney-based University of New South Wales school of psychology put different subjects in a positive (happy) or negative (sad) mood state and tested the accuracy of their recall of a staged eyewitness event such as a bag snatch.

"The results showed that eyewitness accounts of people in a negative mood are more likely to be accurate compared to those in a positive mood state," says Professor Forgas.

"It shows that our recollection of past events are more likely to be contaminated by irrelevant information when we are in a positive mood. A positive mood is likely to trigger less careful thinking strategies."

In a second experiment, researchers put different subjects in a positive or negative mood state and asked them to write down an argument in favour of a particular proposition.

When their arguments were analysed for their quality and persuasiveness, subjects in a negative mood were shown to be far more effective in their critical thinking and communication skills.

You can read the entire article here.

(Then go read Ith's blog if you haven't already.)




1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey CrankyBeach, congratulations.
CrankyBeach: on a mission to display the ore in ornery, the vine in vinegary, the snap in snappish.
Will stay tuned!

 
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