Why does George Loewenstein advise against acting while in a negative mood?

George Loewenstein says that in the grip of a bad mood it is hard to imagine feeling otherwise, so fixed rules about not acting help. He once drafted a nasty reply to a colleague's email that criticised him and had been sent to him by mistake, but a friend arrived to go skiing before he hit send. By evening he sent a light, conciliatory note instead, and that colleague later wrote a blurb for his book.

• Loewenstein says most people believe Primo Levi's death was a suicide, and his biographer tied it to a deep depression with insomnia, not only to Auschwitz.
• Levi wrote that he knew the depression would pass only at a rational level, which Loewenstein uses to show how bad moods feel permanent.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Hidden Brain (2026-10-12). Read the whole episode summary →

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