Anger can be an Expensive Luxury

Want to keep your boss happy? Smile at your customers. Is getting employees to smile good for an organization? Not necessarily so...

Faking it

Want to keep your boss happy? Smile at your customers. Is getting employees to smile good for an organisation? Not necessarily so. Workers who put on fake smiles through the day get into a depression after withdrawing from work. Smiling for the sake of smiling can lead to emotional exhaustion and withdrawal. But workers who smile as a result of positive thoughts improve their mood and withdraw less. One of the first of its kind studies to examine emotional displays over a period of time, the research appeared in the February issue of the Academy of Management Journal.

In and Out of Bad Moods

Research confirms that bad moods can impair one's productivity. And it can spread to others. But what causes bad moods? The standard theory is rooted in a psychological quirk known as 'ego depletion' (that is, when acts of self-control gets exhausted). A classic example is that of cranky dieters-people who are on a diet and are often found to be irritable and aggressive. At the root is the idea of "non conscious goals" and the fact that people succeed and fail at these all the time. Negative moods happen because one fails at a goal one didn't know one had. Research is beginning to show how this affects our health, the way we perform and the judgments we make about others. Self-awareness is the first step toward minimizing the negative impact of a bad mood.

Angry? Start Praying

If someone leaves you fuming, say a prayer. That's what new research from the US and the Netherlands show. The benefits of prayer lie in the act of praying-shows the report published this month in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin-because prayer changes the way people think about a negative situation and helps them take it less personally. What's more, prayer calms people regardless of their religious affiliation, or how religious they are in everyday life. So next time you feel provoked, just pray.

Anger can Spur Heart Attack

Anger figures in a new ranking of heart attack triggers. Conducted by Belgian researchers, the study is based on a large-scale analysis of data on potential triggers for heart attacks. Published in the journal, Lancet, this month, the research shows that while negative emotions in general are linked to 4 per cent of heart attacks, anger specifically is linked to over 3 per cent. Apart from anger, coffee, alcohol, sex and air pollution are the other new factors found to spur an attack.