rage

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…

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But apparently I might get more done. New research noodles the fact that at one level, anger gives you adrenalin and it gives you a right-I’ll-show-you attitude so you focus more.

Did you ever notice how your body tenses and how every hair in your body rises when you’re angry? How your heart pounds so hard that you can feel the throbbing in your temples?

When you’re angry, your blood pressure and heart rate go up—so do your energy and adrenaline. These physiological reactions brought by anger are the same triggers that put us in the fight or flight mode.

If our reaction from anger could spell the difference between death and survival, why aren’t we using our anger more often to our advantage?

Feeling Stuck? Make Your Anger Work for You – Cecille Doroja, Pick the Brain (15 October 2014)

More useful, I think, is the question the rest of the piece attempts to answer: is there a way to keep the anger useful and not get arrested for GBH?

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry – but you might do what I want

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An article on Listverse offers an interesting take on how sometimes it’s worth losing our cool. Though one reason it’s interesting is that it’s also pragmatic. Here’s one section:

Negotiating is all about being levelheaded and outsmarting your opponent, right? Not entirely. All of our interpersonal interactions function on an emotional level as well as an intellectual one. Research shows that sometimes getting mad can help your case. People are programmed to be cautious around someone who is angry. Therefore, it can make the person whom you’re haggling with more cooperative if you get upset—they’ll try to give you stuff to appease you.

However, there are a few caveats to all of this. First of all, this usually only works with Europeans and Americans. Asian cultures find displays of anger during negations to be rude, so blowing your lid may hurt your case. Second, if you do get angry, it has to be real anger. If the guy opposite you thinks you’re faking it, they’ll actually increase their own demands. Researchers say that faking anger erodes trust. If they find out that you’re trying to game them, they’ll be less cooperative.

10 Surprisingly Pleasant Things You Get from Anger – Monte Richard, Listverse (9 October 2014)

Go on. Read the full piece for the other nine points.