Homo sapiens is a very moody species. Even though sadness and bad moods have always been part of the human experience, we now live in an age that ignores or devalues these feelings.
智人是一個非常情緒化的物種。盡管悲傷和壞心情一直以來都是我們的一部分，如今我們卻總傾向于忽視或貶低這種情感。
It's time to re-assess the role of bad moods in our lives. We should recognise they are a normal, and even a useful and adaptive part of being human, helping us cope with many everyday situations and challenges.
現在是時候重新審視我們生命中的壞心情了。我們應該認識到，它們是人之常情，甚至是對我們有幫助的，它還機動性，幫助我們應對日常狀況和挑戰。
A short history of sadness
悲傷的歷史
In earlier historical times, short spells of feeling sad or moody (known as mild dysphoria) have always been accepted as a normal part of everyday life.
歷史上早些時候，短時間的悲傷或郁郁寡歡(通常稱為焦慮)都被視為正常生活的一部分。
Greek tragedies exposed and trained audiences to accept and deal with inevitable misfortune as a normal part of human life. Shakespeare's tragedies are classics because they echo this theme. And the works of many great artists such as Beethoven and Chopin in music, or Chekhov and Ibsen in literature explore the landscape of sadness, a theme long recognised as instructive and valuable.
古希臘悲劇使人們將接受和應對無法避免的災難視為生活的一部分。莎士比亞的悲劇被視為經典的原因就在于它回應了這一主題。長久以來，悲傷都是機具教育意義富有價值的主題，不論是貝多芬，肖邦這樣的音樂家，還是契科夫和易卜生這樣的文學家，他們的偉大作品都對悲傷這一領域進行了探索。
What is the point of sadness?
悲傷的好處有哪些?
In fact, the range of human emotions includes many more negative than positive feelings. Negative emotions such as fear, anger, shame or disgust are helpful because they help us recognise, avoid and overcome threatening or dangerous situations.
事實上，在人類的一系列情感中，消極情緒占大多數。諸如恐懼，憤怒，羞愧，厭惡等負面情緒都是有益的，因為它們幫助我們認清，避免以及克服危險的境遇。
Intense and enduring sadness, such as depression, is obviously a serious and debilitating disorder. However, mild, temporary bad moods may serve an important and useful adaptive purpose, by helping us to cope with everyday challenges and difficult situations.
很顯然，長時間強烈的悲傷，例如抑郁，是一種嚴重的紊亂，會使我們虛弱。然而，溫和短暫的壞情緒則會通過幫助我們應對每天的挑戰和狀況，為我們提供重要且有用的機動性目的，
There is now growing evidence that negative moods, like sadness, has psychological benefits.
越來越多的證據表明諸如悲傷一類的負面情緒，對人的身體是有益的。
Feeling sad or in a bad mood produces a number of benefits:
悲傷或者短時間的壞情緒有以下幾點好處：
better memory: In one study, a bad mood (caused by bad weather) resulted in people better remembering the details of a shop they just left. Bad mood can also improve eyewitness memories by reducing the effects of various distractions, like irrelevant, false or misleading information.
良好的記憶力：一項研究表明，由惡劣天氣引起的壞情緒會使人們更清楚地記得自己剛剛去過的商店。我們通常會受到其他事物的干擾，比如無關的錯誤的或是誤人子弟的信息，負面情緒還會通過消除干擾物的影響來提高人們的視覺記憶。
more accurate judgements: A mild bad mood also reduces some biases and distortions in how people form impressions. For instance, slightly sad judges formed more accurate and reliable impressions about others because they processed details more effectively. We found that bad moods also reduced gullibility and increased scepticism when evaluating urban myths and rumours, and even improved people's ability to more accurately detect deception. People in a mild bad mood are also less likely to rely on simplistic stereotypes.
更加敏銳的判斷力：相對和緩的壞情緒也會減少人們印象中的偏見和失真之處。處于消極情緒中的人也相對較少地依賴簡單的刻板印象。
motivation: Other experiments found that when happy and sad participants were asked to perform a difficult mental task, those in a bad mood tried harder and persevered more. They spent more time on the task, attempted more questions and produced more correct answers.
激勵作用：還有一些實驗表明，處于積極情緒和消極情緒的試驗者在處理同一難度的任務時，處于消極中的人會表現得更加努力，堅持得時間也會更久。
better communication: The more attentive and detailed thinking style promoted by a bad mood can also improve communication. We found people in a sad mood used more effective persuasive arguments to convince others, were better at understanding ambiguous sentences and better communicated when talking.
更加有效的溝通：我們發現處于悲傷中的人們會采取更加具說服力的論點來說服他人，能更好地理解模棱兩可的語句，在交談時溝通也會更加順暢。
increased fairness ：Other experiments found that a mild bad mood caused people to pay greater attention to social expectations and norms, and they treated others less selfishly and more fairly.
更加公平：實驗表明，緩和的壞情緒會使得人們更加關注社會期望和規則，他們對待別人時也會少一些自私，多一些公正。
Counteracting the cult of happiness
抵制對于快樂的崇拜
It is also increasingly recognised that being in a good mood, despite some advantages, is not universally desirable.
越來越多的人認識到，盡管保持好心情會帶來一些好處，但它并不總是如我們所愿。
These findings suggest the unrelenting pursuit of happiness may often be self-defeating. A more balanced assessment of the costs and benefits of good and bad moods is long overdue.
以上研究表明，持續不斷地追尋快樂可能會適得其反。更加公正地看待積極情緒和消極情緒的成本和益處才是長久之計。
文章來源：滬江英語
圖片來源：高品圖像
