But happy people don't seem to pay attention and are more easily persuaded of something. Years ago researchers believed feeling good was beneficial because in certain situations happy people appeared to be more creative. But people wouldn't have developed bad moods if they didn't serve some function, reasons Sinclair. All this goes against trendy motivational gurus who preach happiness and personal empowerment through the banishment of negative thought. Sad people are statistically more realistic and produce more meaningful results, he says, while happy people tend to be more biased and are easily swayed by first impressions or the attractiveness of a person.
Sad people are much less affected by initial information.
They pay more attention to all of the information and form more global judgments.