Happy people easily see the "big picture"

Feeling happy is a wonderful feeling that belongs to one of the types of higher feelings. According to research, a good mood broadens your attention span and allows you to see future opportunities. However, a bad mood tends to keep you focused on where you are. Therefore, it can be said that happy people are easier to see the "big picture".

Seeing the big picture is not a motivator, but a finding from five psychology experiments by marketing researchers Aparna A. Labroo, PhD, MBA, University of Chicago and Vanessa M. Patrick, Doctor of Business Administration, University of Georgia. Research shows that a good mood broadens your horizons and allows you to see future opportunities. On the contrary, a bad mood will make you only look at what is in front of you.
Researchers Labroo and Patrick got together and found that a good mood causes people to see things in more abstract terms. A good mood will cause people to accept common goals or long-term goals, but only long-term goals are considered approachable.

Labroo and Patrick first looked at whether feel-good cues motivate people to take things more broadly, and whether feeling-bad cues promote literal focus more or not.
In the first study, they asked 58 college students to describe a list of 10 activities. Next to each activity (like painting a room, for example) is a small smiley face, a scowling face or a neutral face. Certainly, students used more abstract terms to describe the task if it was marked with a smiley face and used more specific terms for the task with a scowl. smiley face, researchers actually put 129 students in a good or bad mood by having them focus on the best or worst day of their lives. People in a good mood see tasks in abstract paintings (e.g. a painting of beautify the environment). People who are in a bad mood see tasks in a more specific way (for example, a painting that allows me to choose my favorite paint color).

In the third experiment, 40 students reported how good they felt. Half were given an abstract task, they were asked to focus on why they were studying for the exam. The other half have a specific task, they focus on how to study for exams. They were then asked how important their learning goals were to them. Students in a good mood were more likely to find learning goals more important when they focused on abstract reasoning questions. Students who were in a bad mood were more likely to see how important learning goals were when focusing on specific questions.
Next, 90 students were asked to associate freely with 10 positive words, 10 neutral words, or 10 negative words. This is a quest known to put people in a good, neutral, or bad mood. The students then watched one of two orange juice commercials. One ad says you should drink orange juice because it's an investment in your future health. Another ad says that you should drink orange juice because it will ensure your health today. Certainly, students who were in a good mood were more likely to say that they would buy orange juice after seeing an advertisement beneficial to the future. People in a bad mood are more likely to make an ad-based purchase with an immediate benefit.

Finally, researchers asked 69 students to focus on academic goals or friendship goals. The students were then asked to re-experience the best or worst day of their lives. After undergoing a free association assignment, the students were given a scenario in which one had to decide between studying for the next day's exam or meeting an old friend who was passing through town. on the way out of the country.
When prompted to think about study goals, students in a good mood were more likely to choose to study for the exam than students in a bad mood. But when thinking about friendship goals, students who were in a good mood were more likely to choose to see their old friend again.
In short, a good mood expands your attention and allows you to see future opportunities. However, a bad mood tends to keep you focused on where you are. Therefore, it can be said that happy people are easier to see the "big picture".

References: webmd.com, healthline.com