Cherish Your Ever-so-Slight Dissatisfaction

People who are just slightly dissatisfied at baseline might have an advantage over others in getting themselves out of negative situations such as unemployment, suggests Annabelle Krause of the Institute for the Study of Labor, in Germany. For example, she found that highly happy and unhappy people were about 40% and 17% (respectively) less likely than their average-happiness peers to have found new positions one year after losing their jobs, possibly because these personality extremes can lead to loss of resilience and motivation in adversity. A slight dissatisfaction, by contrast, can serve as a motivator to achieve more and earn more money.