In a recent study led by SMU Associate Professor of Psychology Angela Leung, it was found that when the pressure is on, worry appears to be a motivating force for neurotic people. Associate Prof Leung and her colleagues describe three experiments that provide evidence for their thesis. One of them featured 274 Taiwanese university students, who began by filling out a questionnaire designed to measure intrinsic neuroticism. The result: under the heavy cognitive load, neurotic people displayed more flexible thinking after recalling worrisome events. This was in contrast to people low on the neuroticism scale, who displayed the most mental flexibility after recalling neutral events.