Modar HIJAZI

By Rick Nauert PhD

Psychological research has shown that it doesn’t take much to put you in a bad mood. In fact, just reading the morning news can do it.

Experts also say that being in a bad mood slows your reaction time, and affects your basic cognitive abilities like thinking, speech, writing and counting.

But new research from Tel Aviv University’s School of Psychological Sciences now reveals that repeated exposure to a negative event neutralizes its effect on your mood and your thinking.

The study, published in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, has broad implications for understanding our emotions.

“A bad mood is known to slow cognition,” said Moshe Shay Ben-Haim, Ph.D.

“We show that, counterintuitively, you can avoid getting into a bad mood in the first place by dwelling on a negative event.

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