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Why do people have moods?

If you take a given person ask them the same question on two different days, they might respond completely differently, depending on what mood they're in. It seems weird that humans should respond to the same situation in completely different ways for what seem like arbitrary reasons. There's presumably one best, rational response. Being moody means we rarely take it. Why do we have moods? Are they an artefact of some other aspect of our psyches, for example?

emotions

personality

psychology

understand

tynamite

People have a core personality which is the one that they are born with. And there is the overlayed personality that is the result of how social pressures from society make them behave in ways that is not their true self.

For example, if someone's true self is to be mute (me), and they are put into a situation where they have to talk (party), that person will go against their core personality, and exhibit traits from their overlayed personality, in order to do what society deems as acceptible to do in those situations.
Another good example is a narcisstic or violent person covering up those traits, or a naive person at core, who finds it hard to trust with their overlayed personality..

Now what happens when you ask those people the same question you asked them on another day, is that the second time you ask it, they respond with their core personality. As you've probrably already established rapport with that person, they feel no need to answer you with their overlayed personality. They can instead answer you the question more freely.

People do this without realising it.

Update

Another thing to consider is how much the person you're talking to wants to talk to you. Don't get me wrong. If someone is having a conversation with you, they will want to talk to you, so the answer is yes. But if you are good friends or have become friends, the answer will be more so yes. Let's call this, The Yes Scale.

The more the person you're talking to, considers you as their friend, their Yes Scale, will go up, and they will feel more comfortable talking to the other person. It's as simple as that. However on a bad or temperamental day, the person's Yes Scale will go down.