- So last week, I talked about
"The upside of your dark side"
a book by Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener.
Two pioneering researchers in the field of psychology,
who argue that happiness makes us sad
and mindfulness might be overrated.
Kashdan and Biswas-Diener argue that psychological health
means wholeness rather than happiness.
And that traits we all construed to be negative
are actually essential parts of wellbeing, like anxiety.
Wouldn't it be great to get rid
of our anxiety once and for all?
Well, do you also wanna stop enjoying horror movies
and be bored on roller coasters
and less prepared for earthquakes or floods?
I'm gonna say no.
And on top of all these things,
anxious people are far more vigilant than their peers.
So anxiety stimulates our brains,
making us more alert and attentive to potential danger.
Anxiety not only makes you pay more attention
to cues in the world,
but it actually heightens perception.
Research has shown that people can see greater distances
when they're anxious.
Take that LASIK I don't need you anymore.
My anxiety is giving me super powers.
And when we're anxious we even enjoy
a sharper sense of hearing.
Anxious people are more likely to react swiftly
and find solutions when there is perceived trouble.
Or what about anger, right?
Would you guess that anger actually enhances creativity
and increases your authority?
And you don't even have to be the person who's angry.
You can actually use another person's anger
to crank up your own creativity.
Specifically receiving angry feedback
increases both the quality of our ideas
and their originality.
So in an experiment, participants were instructed
to come up with as many as possible uses for a brick
as they could.
However, before beginning the task,
some of the participants had received very angry feedback
on another assignment.
The results, the angry feedback
enhanced the creativity of those participants
who preferred to feel in control.
They found more uses for the brick
than those who had previously been given neutral feedback.
And what's more,
their ideas were much more original.
Ideas such as carrying the brick around in a backpack
as a way to exercise.
In addition, anger can enhance your authority.
As angry people are often viewed as being more powerful
than their happier counterparts.
Demonstrating anger can actually give you leverage
during negotiations.
Now, of course there's definitely a line
between like healthy anger
and then just like verbally or emotionally abusing someone.
So don't just start screaming at people you love
for no reason.
And if you've ever felt guilty for feeling guilty,
I'm happy to inform you that guilt is a ton of benefits.
Guilt not only motivates us to repair any damage we've done,
but it helps us respect moral boundaries.
Guilt is a terrible feeling.
So we avoid actions that are gonna make us feel that way.
Researchers have found that adults
who are prone to react with strong feelings of guilt
are less likely to engage
in harmful behaviors like drunk driving,
assaulting others or theft.
Now, there is a difference though, they note,
between guilt and shame.
Though we have benefits by feeling
and avoiding feelings of guilt,
shame, wholly unhelpful.
Guilt causes us to want to take responsibility.
Whereas shame makes us wanna sweep everything under the rug
in self-preservation.
Anxiety, anger, guilt, okay these are all pretty solid.
You probably could have guessed them
but what about narcissistic traits?
Can they make you more productive, creative, and successful?
I mean, surely the hallmarks of narcissism
excessive admiration seeking,
a grandiose sense of importance and entitlement,
can't be good for you.
Oh yes they can.
Narcissistic people are more likely
to reach the ambitious goals they've set for themselves
because they feel entitled to pursue them.
They're less impeded by self doubt
even when the odds are stacked against them.
And they believe that they're entitled to success
willing to give anything and everything to succeed,
stand out and win the admiration of others.
These character traits are pretty off off-putting
but what happens when the person displaying them
is a medical researcher deciphering the human genome
or trying to cure cancer?
Great reframe, furthermore narcissism can actually
enhance your creativity.
Since narcissists are so sure of their individuality
and brilliance, what's that like?
They are more likely to consider ideas
that others may dismiss as just too freaking weird.
They have a considerable amount of creative freedom
because they pay very little attention to common conventions
and the assumptions of other lesser people.
Now, if narcism wasn't surprising enough for you
how about psychopathic traits?
There's no way that those can be good, right?
I mean, in popular culture,
every psychopath we know is a murderer,
but in real life psychopaths are more likely to be
in the police force or doctors.
Yes psychopathy is often characterized
with a ton of what we would consider negative traits.
However, psychopaths are incredibly useful to society.
Due to their emotional detachment and shallow emotion,
they're better at handling crises
such as terrorist attacks or hostage situations.
And psychopaths also make better leaders.
In a study, 121 experts were asked to evaluate
the president's personality traits
and leadership performance.
The researchers took this data
and estimated both leadership performance
and psychopathic traits from each president's biography.
Those precedents with more psychopathic traits
were better leadership performers,
proving to be more persuasive, willing to take more risks
and more likely to keep a positive relationship
with Congress.
Plus they were more adept at handling crises
than their non psychopathic counterparts.
Anxiety, anger, guilt, narcissism, psychopathy,
though we view these traits as bad
and often do whatever we can to avoid them,
Kashdan and Biswas-Diener have shown me
that negative feelings are an essential part of wholeness.
What I see as anxiety is actually a vigilance.
Anger is great motivation, guilt sets my moral boundaries.
Narcissism gives me the confidence to chase my dreams
and psychopathy I mean, I don't have any of that
so it's fine.
I'm Anna Akana and thank you to the Patreons
who supported today's video.
And of course, thank you always to daddy Squarespace
for sponsoring today's episode.
Daddy Squarespace is an all-in-one platform
to build a beautiful online presence and run your business.
Complete with marketing tools and analytics
to have your website be the best sugar-baby she can be.
For all of you who love to create audio content,
you can use audio blocks
which allows you to embed audio on your site
and then you can tag the audio for iTunes
when your audio block is placed in a blog,
plus you can have multiple contributors
receive selective access to your site's website manager.
And don't worry,
you own all the content that you put on
the daddy Squarespace platform.
It offers one click data portability.
Head to squarespace.com for a free trial.
And whenever you're ready to launch
go to squarespace.com/Anna
to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Daddy Squarespace is a square daddy.