Good to be Bad

I feel great today! Maybe it's the meditation, or maybe it's the idea of a four-day weekend coming up. But--just for a day at least--the world seems right-side up.
Possibly it's a study on moods from Australia that's making me high on life. This morning I was reading a story on the MSN health page about improving your mental attitude. It was a 31-point list of the usual stuff about exercising, eating right, etc, etc, etc. But there, nestled in the middle of the first page was a little network news video about this study that claims bad moods might actually help you think.
The psychologists showed their subjects sad or happy movies in an attempt to induce a mood, then asked them to rate the believability of urban myths and rumors. Apparently the bad mood people were less likely to be gullible, less likely to make snap decisions and more careful and analytical in their thinking. Oh, and also, they were better at presenting a written argument.
"Positive mood is not universally desirable: people in negative mood are less prone to judgmental errors, are more resistant to eyewitness distortions and are better at producing high-quality, effective persuasive messages," the study said.
Well all right then. We in the negative attitude community get tired of being beat up all the time in the media. For the past few decades, it's been nothing but a drumbeat of scapegoating. We're apparently to blame for economic downturns, social meltdowns and, most recently, our own illnesses. It's about time we had a study to call our own--one that claims the clear thinking and cogent writing that is our birthright. It's those positive people who are the ones sending money off to Nigerian princes and veering wildly between national policy viewpoints.
So there, positive people. How's it feel?
Then, while I was still gloating and chuckling, I checked into an article on GOOD about new software that can detect your mood by the type of words you use. The use of "I", for instance, shows not that you're an egomaniac, but that you're less powerful and more self conscious. Should I feel depressed about that? I'm sure I don't know how I feel yet, do I?
Toward the bottom of this article, the software's inventor said that the words were a gauge, but not a means of changing a person's mood:
"...you can’t ask someone to mindlessly repeat more “positive” words and expect them to become less depressed or suicidal. (The software's) real use is in detecting problems such as excessive worry or anger and then showing when progress has been made. When we become more mentally healthy, our language changes unconsciously, because we are changing perspectives."
Wow. Not only is it okay--no, good--to be in a bad mood, but you can't expect to change your mood by mindlessly repeating positive slogans. Like, "I feel happy, I feel healthy, I feed terrific!"
It's not usual for me to find two news items in one day that I love as much as these. Maybe I shouldn't feel so bad about being negative. Maybe I don't have to change my personality after all.
The idea makes me feel...happy?
Uh-oh.