Happy people are 'more creative'
Outgoing people in a good mood are significantly more creative than people who keep themselves to themselves, according to a new study.
University of Portsmouth psychologist Lorenzo Stafford discovered that extrovert people in a good mood are the most creative thinkers because they have more of the "happiness chemical" dopamine.
Introverts are no more creative whether they are in a good or neutral mood, the study found.
Dr Stafford said his results showed personality and mood play a vital role in creativity.
Extroverts are likely to be more successful because a higher than average level of the chemical floods the brain at even higher doses when a person is in a good mood, according to Dr Stafford.
"The more outgoing a person is, the more active their dopamine system is and a positive mood increases dopamine activity even further in many parts of the brain," he explained.
"It's effectively a combination of these two things I would suggest leads to greater activity in certain areas of the brain controlling mental ability.
"This is interesting in itself because it demonstrates that it is the combination of the extrovert personality-type in a positive mood which encourages more creative performance, and not simply positive mood alone."
Dopamine occurs naturally in the brain and affects a range of behaviour including mood, sleep, reward, learning and movement.
Weird Science Factoid: A pound of grasshoppers is three times as nutritious as a pound of beef.
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
