DON’T think you’re doing me any favours by being nice to me. That means you, the women who held the door open for me in the sandwich shop, and the man who bent down on arthritic knees to scoop up the receipt that had fallen out of my wallet

Normally when such acts of kindness take place, I skip away, my heart light with the redeeming goodness of mankind.

I don’t go so far as to burst into merry song or hug a stranger, but it might spur me on to make a rash donation to charity or to purchase the Big Issue from a vendor optimistically approaching everyone on the street.

That was until I read the latest psychological research on mood that says being grumpy is good for you.

I can stomp with the best of them and even manage the occasional sulk, but there comes a point when you have to stop whingeing and just learn to ignore the situation that’s getting you down.

I model my outlook on that of an ostrich – a lot of the time, pretending the problem isn’t happening makes it go away.

Or at least you think it has, which in certain situations is the closest you can get to a resolution.

However, according to the research carried out by Australian psychology expert Prof Joe Forgas, we would be better off whingeing.

Miserable people are better at decision-making, paying attention and avoiding mistakes, he discovered, while cheerful types are more gullible but also often more creative.

In the study, people were asked to focus on positive or negative memories to put them in a good or bad mood.

Then they were asked to carry out tasks such as giving eyewitness accounts of events and judging whether statements were true or false.

“Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world,” explains Prof Forgas, which might explain why Big Issue sellers are always so optimistic – they were too upbeat to think themselves out of their problems.

So, to become more successful in life, we should all ditch the Pollyanna optimism and get ourselves a bad attitude.

And if you spend April Fools Day working up a serious brow crease, you’ll never fall for a prank again.