Sadness is good for us? Oh, what is it talking about? A prof of psychology is said to be researching into the purpose of sadness. Does sadness have a purpose? It sounds strange.
But this initial remark catches my eyes, and I agree:
" We’re a culture obsessed with happiness. Everyone seems to be chasing it, and the science of happiness has even become an entire industry. But, even happy people feel sad, and it turns out there’s a very good reason for that."
The prof says " research is revealing that each emotion serves a specific evolutionary purpose – including emotions that many of us try to avoid." According to him, sadness gives some extraordinary benefits:
“People in a mild negative-affective state (sadness), tend to perform better, their memory is more accurate, their judgements seem to be less biased, and they communicate more effectively…The purpose of mild sadness is it functions like an alarm signal. It alerts us subconsciously to pay a little bit more attention to what goes on around us. To be a little bit more focussed, and to be a little bit more attentive.”
To this, I agree too. Yes, sadness, not to the point of depression, may be not so bad.
Not bad. I keep this article for a later reading, though in a sense this observation can be taken for granted.