Its good to get grumpy

We all occasionally get out of bed on the wrong side and although it may not feel like it at the time, getting a Victor Meldrew strop on could actually help you to communicate more effectively, suggests BBC News.

According to an Australian expert in psychology, miserable people are far better at making decisions than cheerful ones, who are apparently also far more gullible in comparison to their cantankerous counterparts.

Professor Joe Forgas told Australian Science Magazine that whilst happiness encourages creativity, a serious case of the grumps results in attentiveness and careful thinking.

In his experiment, Forgas asked volunteers to watch different films and dwell on positive or negative events in their life, intended to put the participant in either a good or bad mood.

The next stage of the experiment involved the participants participating in a number of tasks, including judging the truth of urban myths and providing eyewitness accounts of events.

The results showed that those in a bad mood outperformed those who were happy. They made fewer mistakes, were better communicators and were better at stating their case through written arguments.

A researcher at The University Of New South Wales says the reason a grouchy person can cope in more demanding situations is because the brain promotes superior information processing strategies.

Professor Forgas said: "Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world."