Public speaking is often described as one of the most scary activities possible.
The results showed that people felt emotions in all different parts of their bodies.
In one study 300 employees of a US company were shown videos of excited, calm or neutral job applicants.
The type of people who are more efficient when they are in a bad mood.
The type of people who are more efficient when they are in a bad mood.
Being in a bad mood can help certain people think more efficiently, according to new research.
Feeling fed up can boost some people’s ‘executive functioning’, which includes their ability to focus, plan and prioritise tasks.
Conversely, good moods sometimes reduce other people’s executive functioning.
Professor Tara McAuley, study co-author, said:
“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.”
It all depends on emotional reactivity, the psychologists found.
Some people are highly reactive: their moods swing quickly and strongly at the slightest provocation.
Highly reactive people were found to perform better on tasks when they were in a bad mood.
It may be because more emotionally reactive people are used to dealing with bad moods, so it is less distracting for them.
For people low in emotional reactivity, though, being in a bad mood was distracting, and they performed worse.
Professor McAuley said:
“People shouldn’t interpret the results as saying it’s fine to fly off the handle or overreact, or to be grouchy.
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.”
The study included 95 people who were all given tests of emotional reactivity and different tests of executive function.
Only bad moods had any effect on people’s ability to concentrate and use their memories efficiently.
Positive mood states had no effect.
The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Gabel & McAuley, 2018).
The analysis of tweets also revealed the times of day at which people are most emotional and analytical.
The ‘Duchenne marker’ is named after the French neurologist who first discovered it.
People were asked about embarrassing situations like farting in a yoga class or getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
Subtle changes in the skin colour around the nose, cheeks and chin can help you identify emotions.
Totally cutting out screens was not the best option for happiness.
Totally cutting out screens was not the best option for happiness.
The happiest teenagers use screens for around an hour a day, new research finds.
More than this is linked to steadily rising levels of unhappiness.
The results come from a survey of over one million US teenagers aged 13-18.
The more time they spent in front of screens — using social media, texting or playing games — the less happy they were.
Their happier peers invested more time in reading, sports and face-to-face social interactions.
Professor Jean M. Twenge, the study’s first author, believes that screen time is driving depression, although the study cannot prove it:
“Although this study can’t show causation, several other studies have shown that more social media use leads to unhappiness, but unhappiness does not lead to more social media use.”
Interestingly, totally cutting out screens was not the best option for happiness — a little less than one hour a day turned out to be the sweet spot.
Professor Twenge said:
“The key to digital media use and happiness is limited use.
Aim to spend no more than two hours a day on digital media, and try to increase the amount of time you spend seeing friends face-to-face and exercising — two activities reliably linked to greater happiness.”
After 2012, teeangers’ self-esteem, life satisfaction and happiness has dropped like a stone compared with similar age groups from the 1990s.
It is probably no coincidence that smartphones are now everywhere, Professor Twenge said:
“By far the largest change in teens’ lives between 2012 and 2016 was the increase in the amount of time they spent on digital media, and the subsequent decline in in-person social activities and sleep.
The advent of the smartphone is the most plausible explanation for the sudden decrease in teens’ psychological well-being.”
The study was published in the journal Emotion (Twenge et al., 2018).
Positive emotions are given the biggest boost by different foods as we age.
Positive emotions are given the biggest boost by different foods as we age.
The diets linked to mental health change over the lifetime, new research finds.
The mood of young people — aged between 18 and 30 — benefits from neurotransmitter precursors provided by foods like meat.
Meat — whether red or white — increases the build-up of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, which both help to boost mood.
However, for those over 30 a different pattern emerged.
Mature adults were in a better mood if they ate foods that boosted their antioxidant levels, such as fruit.
Mature adults were also in a better mood if they avoided things activated the sympathetic nervous system, such as coffee and skipping breakfast.
Dr Lina Begdache, the study’s first author, said:
“One of the major findings of this paper is that diet and dietary practices differentially affect mental health in young adults versus mature adults.
Another noteworthy finding is that young adult mood appears to be sensitive to build-up of brain chemicals.
Regular consumption of meat leads to build-up of two brain chemicals (serotonin and dopamine) known to promote mood.
Regular exercise leads to build-up of these and other neurotransmitters as well.
In other words, young adults who ate meat (red or white) less than three times a week and exercised less than three times week showed a significant mental distress.”
The study involved a survey that was completed by people around the world.
Dr Begdache explained the findings for adults:
“Conversely, mature adult mood seems to be more sensitive to regular consumption of sources of antioxidants and abstinence of food that inappropriately activates the innate fight-or-flight response (commonly known as the stress response).
With aging, there is an increase in free radical formation (oxidants), so our need for antioxidants increases. Free radicals cause disturbances in the brain, which increases the risk for mental distress.
Also, our ability to regulate stress decreases, so if we consume food that activates the stress response (such as coffee and too much carbohydrates), we are more likely to experience mental distress.”
The study was published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience (Begdache et al., 2017).
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