Society for Science & the Public, which publishes Science News, uses cookies to personalize your experience and improve our services. For more information on how we use cookies on our websites, visit our Cookie Policy.
Feature Psychology

The bright side of sadness

Bad moods can have unappreciated mental upsides

Evidence suggests that gloomy moods improve key types of thinking and behavior.

Vertes Edmond Mihai/Shutterstock

By Bruce Bower

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Psychology

  1. Dayton Ohio mass shooting
    Humans

    Are researchers asking the right questions to prevent mass shootings?

    By Bruce Bower
  2. rhesus monkeys
    Life

    Monkeys can use basic logic to decipher the order of items in a list

    By Bruce Bower
  3. raven
    Animals

    Bad moods could be contagious among ravens

    By Carolyn Wilke
  4. Health & Medicine

    Why war’s emotional wounds run deeper for some kids and not others

    By Bruce Bower
  5. Astronomy

    Seeing very far away and hitting closer to home

    By Nancy Shute
  6. anxious child
    Psychology

    When anxiety happens as early as preschool, treatments can help

    By Sujata Gupta
  7. a group of students at a memorial in Parkland, Fla.
    Psychology

    What we know and don’t know about how mass trauma affects mental health

    By Sujata Gupta
  8. Chimps screaming
    Animals

    ‘Mama’s Last Hug’ showcases the emotional lives of animals

    By Erin Wayman

From the Nature Index

Paid Content