Rob, I'm very sorry that your first question here was treated with contempt by Robert W. Sadly this occurs in public fora from time to time.
Be assured that there is no such thing as a stupid question. My experience in this forum has been wonderful, so do not be put off by Robert W's acidic and cynical comments. There are some fantastic and very experienced Hassy members here.
Robert W, if you have nothing constructive to say here, then just keep out! Clearly even when asked to respond sensibly you still could only resort to greater cynicism. If you want to make such a big bloke of yourself go somewhere else!
Rob, David gave you a very good answer. Generally you will find better image contrast with a hood than without a hood - of course this is all relative to the light circumstances. But, moreover if you get into the good habit of always having a hood on, you will avoid most potentially nasty surprises caused by "stray light". In some cases if you also have a filter on the front of the lens the potential for a nasty effect of stray light is also reduced. It might, one day, also protect the front element from a fall!
Interestingly very old lenses that may only be single coated or even uncoated can produce excellent images if they have a hood on.
Enjoy, and hopefully the cynical and nasty members like Robert W will rarely pop their heads up.