back to article Cynicism, grumpiness cause heart attacks, strokes

Irascible, grumpy cynics have a significantly higher risk of suffering heart attacks and strokes compared to mellow, amiable, trusting people, according to a new study. Researchers carrying out a survey found that "antagonistic" subjects - that is, those who were assessed as competitive, aggressive, manipulative or "quick to …

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  1. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Positive feedback

    So presumably telling the angry, disaffected and grumpy that they're more likely to die sooner will just make them more annoyed and therefore speed up the process.

    The question I have is: would publishing this information in the Daily Mail make you responsible for all the burst blood vessels, heart attacks and early deaths it would cause in their readership?

  2. Andy Watt
    Stop

    Well Duh....

    Dear god, who funds this arse-backwardness?

    Next: the University of East Anglia demonstrates conclusively that umbrellas cause cloudbursts!

  3. Falanx
    Stop

    Hogwash!

    Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that people who *air* their greviances straight away, rather than bottling them like the 'aggreable' types*, are the least stressed of all people. Blow your stack, over and done with, get on with your day...

    *There's no such thing as an agreeable human. We're predators, murderers and thieves, just like all the other animals. A substantial section of the populous just forgot that when they moved into houses. It's still there, bubbling under the surfaces, which is why all the news reports always say "He was a lovely young man, never hurt a fly, we can't believe he hauled off with a hammer and brutalised 85 people to death."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Heart

      This calls for some medicine

      You need to see more pictures of adorable cats.

      I think that if we stuck pictures of cute baby animals everywhere violent crime would go down.

      1. Z 1
        Grenade

        What!

        I hate cute furry animals - they make me mad

        1. Captain DaFt
          Flame

          Eh...

          They make me hungry....

          Flames because - Light up the grill, it's Bambi!

    2. Wize

      Just look at Essex

      the locals are half way back into the trees.

    3. Mexflyboy
      Headmaster

      Actually, humans are the worst...

      Unless I'm mistaken, aren't we humans far WORSE than the other animals? Last I checked, humans were most effective at murder/genocide, with even the most successful non-human predators (sharks, lions, bears, etc.) left in the dust vis-avis the sheer number of murders against our own kind, let alone against non-human animals...?

      1. Pierre Castille
        Boffin

        @Mexflyboy - Ants - they are the super-aggressors of the animal kindom

        Compared to ants, humans are very meek and mild. If someone tells you 'only humans wage war' they have never studied ants. If ants developed nuclear weapons, the jungles of the world would be incinerated in a flash (well several flashes). Ants don't compromise - they just attack using their massive jaws and a bit of poison besides. In Amazonia one species of ant is known as the bullet ant - because if they bite you, you feel as if you have been shot.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Mexflyboy

        Or maybe we're better because we have the ability to imagine terrible, terrible things to do to one another and the actual instances of it are blissfully rare in most society.

      3. Veldan
        Grenade

        Mexflyboy

        I agree we are definitely the most deadly animal, thanks to our ability to make guns and other assorted weapons.

        However, i think certain insectoid/arachnid species do more damage to their own kind. I don't know many mothers upon getting the cravings for a midnight snack decide several dozen of their offspring would hit the spot... purely going by the numbers here, animals have murdered more of each other per capita than humans. However, our murders tend to be flashier (wars are rather big...)

  4. GrumpyBob

    Oh dear

    my nom-de-plume says it all really...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    No - it's the other way around

    Obviously the more likely explanation is that thicker arteries /cause/ grumpiness, not the other way around.

    Tux - 'cos a diet of herring is probably good for something or other

  6. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    FFS!

    OH YEAH RIGHT! WTF? I suppose that we should all just keep our mouths shut and get on with living our stupid little mundane little lives like the happy little idiot sheep that ...AAACK MY HEART! GAH! URG! EEEEEEEEEeeeeeehhhhhhh...........................................................................................................................................................just.....reach....submit.....button....

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    Yeah right...

    Hah, what a load of bull that was, yet another churned out health warning based on nothing but hysteria.

    I'm fed up with so called scientists and their so called studies that tell us how to live our lives, it makes me so angry.

    Barstards they should all be given a damn good kicking.

    If I were a scientist I'd run rings around the lot of them, oh and for another....ahh ooh ow aarrrrrrrrrhu hu h.....

  8. Thomas 4
    Stop

    Nonsense!

    I'm a bitter and deeply cynical man, whose main idea to improve the human race involves several megatons of radioactive fission and I'm still hale and heart-

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon

      Sir

      Wouldn't a neutron bomb serve the same purpose yet not pollute the earth for all the nice fluffy animals out there, like pirahana?

  9. Nick Kew
    Dead Vulture

    Vulnerable old people

    We regularly hear about vulnerable old people getting taken for a ride.

    Now we know why. Only the gullible live to be that old! They're god's gift to the conman!

    Icon 'cos it's the only tombstone, even if I'm not called Reg.

  10. MinionZero
    WTF?

    That is a profoundly naive study...

    After reading this my stress levels have gone up, as I now feel like venting my despairing anger on these morons who wrote this useless study. Ok, deep breath, here goes...

    @"trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty and tender mindedness."

    Oh what an idealistic view of the world. Problem is whilst most people are like this, some are most definitely not and they (the Narcissists) are the cause of a huge amount of stress for everyone else, as they try to fuck over everyone else for their own gain.

    Day to day most people are not be exposed to the full wrath of the Narcissists, but over a lifetime its impossible to avoid them from time to time causing us all great hardship and suffering and therefore stress. But that takes time to learn to see the true root cause of so much stress in our lives.

    The first most obvious kind of Narcissists that we learn to see are the aggressive Narcissists, but they are easy to spot. But some Narcissists are very good at hiding their true underhanded intentions (these are the Passive–aggressive Narcissists) and they are much harder to see due to their very two faced underhanded ways they work against people. Even worse their two faced nature gives them a competitive advantage in political fights for power over others, so they sadly naturally end up dominating higher levels of political power regardless of which political party we look at. The Passive–aggressive Narcissists are also very good at gaining power in corporations.

    The Narcissists is why progress is so difficult in politics and in corporations, because these people dominate and then control and therefore stop and endlessly block everyone else succeeding, but most people are frankly ignorant of the depth of cunning and duplicity of the Narcissists. Its why in society they are so effective because if everyone realised their cunning and duplicity they would be stopped. But then they don't want people to wake up to their actions (so they often use straw man arguments to put down anyone who tries to speak out against them). Duplicity is as easy as breathing for the Narcissists in society because they spend their lives learning effective means of lying and deceiving people.

    Therefore ignorant profoundly naive studies like this actually hold us back more than help us as society to finally get at the real problems in society.

    I'll leave the last word to the late great Bill Hicks as he talks about some of these Narcissistic scum bags in society...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    So basically

    “People who tend to be competitive and more willing to fight for their own self interest have thicker arterial walls, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease ..."

    or in other words,

    being selfish will kill you.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So

    If this were true, there would be no London taxi drivers...

  13. The elephant in the room
    Heart

    Then the meek will inherit the earth!

    Smug twats.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @The elephant in the room

      "Then the meek will inherit the earth!"

      Sure they will, when the strong have finished with it.

    2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Happy

      The elephant in the room

      "Then the meek will inherit the earth"

      IN 4' x6' plots.

  14. Jason Hall

    All repeat please...

    Association is no proof of causation.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Exactly

      I am a right grumpy cynical twat who'll arc-up at the slightest hint of being ripped-off by corporation or Government dept yet I have low blood pressure, good cholesterol levels and I am constantly certified fit and healthy in an annual heart health check. I am also nearly 40 so youth is not on my side.

      Genetics and diet probably come into this someone along the line. Too much sugar and not enough sleep also make people miserable bastards - maybe that's the cause?

  15. disgruntled yank

    Hmm

    I see a new opening for the medical marijuana lobbyists.

  16. Phil Rigby
    Joke

    It's the Italians

    The study was of Italians. The first people to invent a tank with 12 reverse gears. That's probably got something to do with it, all the pasta and wine they consume...

  17. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Down

    Perhaps that should read *apparently* agreeable people

    Mind you this is *bad* news for the BOFH.

    His days are surely numbered.

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