What is the real purpose of anger? Are men hotter than women? Does anger affect our psyche? The answers to these questions are slowly being revealed by science.
According to an article in The Guardian , anger is one of the most primitive human emotions, even though many animals have the same basic neural circuitry as us. Anger can be divided into several levels, ranging from mild to explosive. And in each person, in each experience, there will be a different level of anger. But as science enters the field, we will be able to gradually reveal explanations for the relationship between anger and a person’s personality, age, gender, and life experiences. .
Scientists believe that the ability to anger has been deeply embedded in our brains over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. It forms part of our fighting instincts, the kind of instincts that help us confront dangers and scramble for resources, and help us assert our own social norms. In essence, anger has its roots deep in the brain’s reward system – a group of neural structures responsible for creating incentives. Besides, we are constantly weighing the circumstances that we want to happen, this process can happen even subconsciously. And when there’s a disagreement between what they expect and what’s going on, this group of neural structures will send an alarm, triggering activity in the amygdala region of the brain.
In essence, anger has deep roots in the brain’s reward system. (Illustration).
Anger then triggers the body’s fight-or-flight response, whereby the adrenal glands pour into the bloodstream a flurry of stress hormones including adrenaline and testosterone, to help prepare us for the unexpected. touch” physics. But the ultimate act of anger is controlled by a second brain region – the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for making decisions and finding excuses. This area of the brain will weigh in on anger and remind us to behave in a way that doesn’t cross social boundaries most of the time and in situations. It is what limits the primitive instincts of mankind.
Anger can really affect the way we view risks . Many studies have shown that it can lead us to disagree and underestimate the likelihood of bad consequences. The evidence is that in a study, people will make volunteers feel angry, this group will estimate the occurrence rate of cardiovascular diseases is lower compared to the group of volunteers who are having a bad attitude. fear level. Not only that, but these “aggressive” volunteers also indicated that they wanted to be paid more. Accordingly, depending on the surrounding context, anger can make us braver or more reckless.
Anger also affects population dynamics. When we feel angry, we tend to think more negatively and biased about outsiders, and we are also more likely to blame the negative characteristics of someone’s nature than that of others. their circumstances. Not only that, there have been many studies showing that people in anger also tend to look for people to blame. But this action not only does not calm the anger, on the contrary, it increases the person’s anger towards one or a group of people to blame. This in some cases will create a spiral of irrational anger.
Historically, anger is often seen as a negative thing. In ancient Rome, anger was said by Seneca to be ” worthless even in war “. Not only that, anger is also one of the seven deadly sins. But the scientific world recognizes that anger can have a number of benefits for individuals in particular and for society in general.
Anger can act as a powerful motivator. In a study conducted in 2010, Dutch scientists showed volunteers images of objects such as pens and cups on a computer screen, interspersed between these images were two molds. face showing anger and expressionless. When images of angry faces appeared, participants tended to desire the object and would work harder in a game included in the study to obtain the objects. In addition, the interesting point is that the participants were not aware of this motivation, and they reported that they simply liked the objects.
The outward appearance of anger can also change the way you perceive it. Larissa Tiedens, an American psychologist with experience in anger research, found that study participants liked President Bill Clinton when he saw him express anger. about the Monica Lewinsky scandal rather than when they saw him expressing sadness. Not only that, the same effect also appears if Bill is replaced with other unpopular politicians.
In addition, Tiedens also found that study participants tended to attribute higher levels of social status and salary to job candidates who rated themselves as a hot-tempered person. And when you express anger in a negotiation, the odds of success are higher because we are more likely to yell at people who are perceived as stubborn and domineering. But it should also be noted that all of the anger studies mentioned above have been about anger in men. There are also studies that show evidence that women are less angry than men.
Usually, compared to women, men are more likely to express their anger , so it is also believed that men are more hot-tempered than women. But this is not correct . There are studies that show that women experience anger just as often and as intensely as men. It is true that hot-tempered men are more aggressive, but this does not conclude that women do not get angry as often as men. In a study conducted by scientists at Southwest Missouri University, the authors surveyed about 200 women and men, and came to the conclusion that the frequency of anger and anger expressed by The action in women is not inferior to that of men. The biggest difference the authors found was that men were often worse at suppressing anger, while women were better at controlling impulses triggered by anger.
Women experience anger just as often and as intensely as men. (Illustration).
There is also evidence that gender differences in anger actually stem from differences in brain physiology. A study by Ruben and Raquel Gur, a couple at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, found that although the amygdala in the brains of men and women are about the same size, but the prefrontal cortex in women is larger in size. This is the area of the brain responsible for managing and controlling impulsive actions in humans. From this finding, the authors suggest that this is why women will often be better than men at suppressing rising emotions.
But scientists still don’t fully understand the effects of brain physiology on shaping differences between the sexes. However, they also found strong evidence to show that many other behaviors, along with social expectations, also play a part in shaping this difference.
The psychologist at Yale University points out: “We also found that differences in the way boys and girls are educated at school can also affect their ability to control how they respond to their education. And if we just compare brain differences, we won’t be able to explain the difference, it’s much more complicated than that.”
The way we respond to feelings of anger all depends on the balanced connections between several different regions of the brain. But when these connections are broken, people become more aggressive than usual.
Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and especially frontotemporal dementia, are all responsible for damage to the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain that inhibits brain cells. instinctive response to frustration and anger. Not only that, the above diseases can also completely cut off the connections between this part of the brain and the amygdala.
Luca Passamonty, a consultant neurologist and researcher at the University of Cambridge, said: ” People with frontotemporal dementia often become aggressive, scowling, and irritable. It also makes it easier for patients to express their discomfort openly, and increases the intensity of the way they express these emotions.”
Passamonti also states that the cause of this fact is a combination of an inability to inhibit immediate responses to frustration and anger and difficulties in weighing the context of emotions, as well as having difficulty understanding why I am feeling this way.
In addition, the way we handle anger can affect our mental well-being. In some people, Passamonti said, there can be extreme inhibition, when the prefrontal cortex becomes more “hyperactive” than usual, although this helps us control our behaviors. When we are angry, it leaves us feeling mentally drained.
Not stopping there, according to Baskin-Sommers, who has done a lot of research on criminal and antisocial behavior, life experiences will also affect how we feel angry. ” There have been many studies that have shown links between exposure to anger and unrealistic aggression, ” she said.
A recent study aimed to find out how much exposure to violence is enough to change people’s cognitive processes. The authors of the above study came to the conclusion that people with a childhood of violence, although they can still distinguish between good people and bad people, they cannot trust anyone even if they are not. that person acts very generously. As Baskin-Sommers explains it, “violence has shaped these people so deeply in their nature that they cannot distinguish who they should trust. These people always feel like they’re there. like they’re on the brink and can’t figure out how they can navigate the social world around them .”
It is the feeling of being threatened all the time that makes anger and aggression more likely to be triggered. But Baskin-Sommers is optimistic that in the future there will be many other interventions, including cognitive behavioral therapy, to help these people overcome the not-so-pleasant childhood experience.