Being in a bad mood could actually make you MORE productive, study finds
- The study involves 95 participants and explores their emotional reactivity
- Emotional reactivity refers to sensitivity and duration of our mood responses
- Bad mood may help with some executive skills but, only for people who are more emotionally reactive, as opposed to lower-reactive people
- Happy people may struggle to manage and prioritize tasks, research also finds
Feeling blue can actually help some people to focus, manage their time and better prioritize tasks, new research suggests.
In fact, researchers found being in a good mood may hamper time-keeping and organizational skills.
However, this was only true for extroverts – while introverts ground to a halt when they felt gloomy.
People who are in a bad mood may be more productive because they are less distracted, study suggests
The study, which was carried out by Tara McAuley, a psychology professor at the University of Waterloo, and Martyn S. Gabel, a PhD candidate; explored how 95 people cope with the demands and stresses daily, depending on their mood.
Researchers focused on emotional reactivity – the sensitivity, intensity and duration of our emotional responses associated with our mood. These things are the defining factors that influence our so-called ‘effective functioning’ (or, abilities to carry out tasks).
They broke down the group into categories of emotional reactivity – high-reactive people and low-reactive people.
High-reactive individuals (i.e. extroverts) are people who have rapid, intense, and enduring emotional responses, while low-reactive people (introverts) are more relaxed.
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In the research, extroverts performed better on executive function tasks when they were in a bad mood.
Meanwhile, low-reactive people showed the opposite effect: their abilities would grind down to a halt when they were in a bad mood.
‘Our results show that there are some people for whom a bad mood may actually hone the kind of thinking skills that are important for everyday life,’ said McAuley.
‘We know that emotional reactivity differs from person to person starting at a very early age and that these individual differences have implications for mental health later in development.’
But he warns: ‘People shouldn’t interpret the results as saying it’s fine to fly off the handle or overreact, or to be grouchy.’
Further research is needed to explain the relationship, but some studies suggest that high-reactive people are more accustomed to experiencing negative emotions.
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