How dark emotions shape modern success…
Monday, July 31, 2023.
Americans have an abundant, persistent mythology of success. Which science is now calling bullsh*t on.
Advances in Neuroscience have taught us that there are activating emotions, which propel humans to take action, and there are deactivating emotions such as a sense of hopelessness, or joyless ennui, which often leads to emotional paralysis and stalled success.
Breaking Research Suggests that There is an Equifinality to Success.
That is, it’s possible to follow different, dark paths to success, avoiding the four lane superhighway of relentless positivity and benevolent social engagement. New research shows that anger and anxiety are activating emotions for some humans, and can fuel their future success.
In the USA, we tend to complain about our anxiety, and we may tend to discharge our anger in a deactivating miasma of hopelessness.
Despite their obvious unpleasant impact upon the nervous system, darker emotions like rage, anger, anxiety, and fear can also be activating.
Activating emotions impel humans to take action on their goals. These emotions create an urge to do something, as opposed to deactivating emotions like despair or hopelessness, which tend to lead to frustration and lethargy.
The triumph of hope over pessimism
The conclusions come from an international study of over 1,000 people in four countries whose level of ambition and degree of success was measured in a matrix of challenging situations.
Success Was Still Highly Correlated With Hope and Optimism. In fact, hopeful students scored, on average, one grade higher than a similarly talented, but less optimistic human.
Professor Reinhard Pekrun, the study’s first author, explained the results:
“This is the first study that has developed a 3D model for success emotions.
Although the model might seem abstract at first sight, it shows how achievement emotions relate to critically important parts of our lives and can define how we perform in job interviews, tests and other stressful situations.
Interestingly we found feelings like anxiety and anger can sometimes motivate us more than enjoyment or relaxation.
However, despite its energizing powers, the knife edge of anxiety can lead to mental health issues, undermine the functioning of the immune system, and lead to a drop in performance in the long run.
Overall hope was the healthiest and best way to spark success and promote long-term happiness.
Failure and struggle as such don’t define one’s future, it is the perception of failures that has a strong effect on emotional responses.”
The dark side of negative emotions are the stuff of human legend
If your psyche is the kind that is activated by anxiety or anger, modulating your nervous system is key. Excessive bouts of anxiety and anger have been linked to specific health consequences, such as insomnia, migraines, back pain, nausea… as well as the psychological stress of handling anger and anxiety as fuel for your eventual triumph.
Nevertheless, the study demonstrates that there are different paths to success — not everyone gets there by the conventional route of following their dreams and being endlessly positive.
Here’s Another Way of Looking at It. We are at a Point in our Global Culture where an Increasing Number of Humans Recruit their Anger and Anxiety as Their Fuel of Choice for Their Success.
We Live in an Age of Epic Anger and Anxiety.
So it Makes Sense That We’d Find a Way to Make It Work for Us.
How do some people use anger as fuel to succeed?
Anger as Motivational Fuel. I sometimes hear an excessively polite client tell me that they are ‘turning their anger into positive energy’. Anger gets a bad rap sometimes. Anger is an approach emotion, it is already, in itself, a kind of positive energy.. an energy that has great utility, and can manifest a powerful motivating impulse.
Research has Shown that Anger Can Make Us Push on Towards Our Goals in the Face of Problems and Barriers. In an interesting study, subjects were shown objects they associated with a reward. Some, however, were first exposed to angry faces. Those shown the angry faces were more likely to want objects they were subsequently exposed to (Aarts et al., 2010).
When we see something as beneficial, we want it more when we’re angry!
So, when used right, constructive anger can make you feel strong and powerful and help push you on to get what you want.
Angry Humans Are More Optimistic. It’s weird, but true. Angry humans and happy humans share an interesting trait; they are both inclined to be optimistic! There was a study conducted to measure the fear of terrorism carried out in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Curiously, those humans who described feeling angry expected fewer attacks in the future (Lerner et al., 2003). In contrast, those who experienced more fear tended to be more pessimistic about the likelihood of future attacks.
Hidden Anger Can Damage Intimate Relationships. Anger is a natural reaction to feeling injured by a human you’re close to. Anger is an emphatic conveyance of a sense of injustice. But social mores tend to scold us and say that our anger is dangerous and we should tuck it away.
What does this do to intimate human relationships?
We’ve known for some time that hiding anger in marriage can be detrimental (Baumeister et al., 1990).
The problem is that when you hide your anger, you deny your partner the vital information that they have p*ssed you off…and so they are more likely to keep doing it.
And that doesn’t do your relationship any damn good at all.
Anger, appropriately aimed at finding a preference for an “instead” rather than mindlessly raging can actually help repair the situation.
Anger Offers Information. If we can notice our nervous system, anger may also offer valuable insight into ourselves, if we can notice ourselves with curiosity.
A study back in the 90’s asked Americans and Russians about how recent outbursts of anger had impacted them (Kassinove et al., 1997).
A whopping 55% claimed that their anger resulted in a positive outcome. A third reported that anger offered insight into their own mistakes. The findings were that when humans can notice when they get angry and why, then they can recognize their preferences, and improve their intimate bond.
Can Anger Actually Reduce the Possibility of Violence? Wait… I’m confused. Anger often precedes an outbreak of physical violence, how can anger also be a way of reducing violence?
We sometimes neglect the fact that anger is a powerful social sign that a situation requires immediate attention toward resolution. When humans see anger, it seizes their attention. Perhaps a motivation to understand and satisfy the angry party will emerge.
Anger is a Tool of Negotiation. Being really p*ssed off can be an effective and acceptable way to get what you want. I learned this in great detail when I was getting my labor studies degree.
For example, a study of negotiation outcomes showed that participants made larger concessions to, and fewer demands of, an angry person than one who was happy (Van Kleef et al., 2002).
So there’s more than anecdotal evidence that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. But unabashed anger is the stuff of divas.
You can’t just lose your sh*t and expect everyone to cave…
The research is clear that anger justifiable anger, that is, anger with a compelling narrative, is effective anger.
A powerful narrative of justice will limit your counterparts range of motion (Sinaceur & Tiedens, 2006; Van Kleef et al., 2007).
Believe it or not, P*ssed Off, Angry Music Can Be Calming. Punk, Death Metal, Hip Hop, Heavy Metal, Techno Screamo.. Emo… Fu*ko... can actually have a positive, calming effect on anger (Sharman & Dingle, 2015).
I get it if you prefer Mozart….but the science is unassailable. Instead of becoming more aggressive, listening to frenetic, furious, chaotic music actually calmed and inspired most regular listeners who prefer that genre music.
Ms. Leah Sharman, the study’s first author, said:
“We found the music regulated sadness and enhanced positive emotions.
When experiencing anger, extreme music fans liked to listen to music that could match their anger.
The music helped them explore the full gamut of emotion they felt, but also left them feeling more active and inspired.
Results showed levels of hostility, irritability and stress decreased after music was introduced, and the most significant change reported was the level of inspiration they felt.”
When being so fu*king p*ssed off…works
Anger can inhibit the possibility of violence, benefit relationships with clear conflictual content, promote optimism and fuel motivation toward goals…but it can just as easily blow up in your face if you’re not deliberate and intentional in how you use your anger.
That’s the paradox of being a human. Human tranquility isn’t always a positive experience, and anger isn’t always a bad move… (although you’ll need to engage in a great deal of positive noticing to use your anger well).
How can we spot anger that is being recruited reasonably?
The Human who caused the Anger is Present.
The Anger has a Narrative of Justice. It is also of Appropriate Intensity to the Level of Injury.
The Anger is Expressed as the Initial Effort in Trying to Solve a Problem, in other Words, it is Mindful of a Preferred Outcome, Rather than Displaying Aimless, Rageful, Contemptuous Behavior.
Effective Anger is Strategic as Fu*k. The Anger’s Utility is in Achieving the Preferred Outcome.
Despite Cultural Imperatives, Humans Do Seem to Unconsciously Understand the Utility of a Presentation of Anger. For example, a study in 2008 found participants who were about to play a game requiring them to be confrontational, were more likely to listen to angry music beforehand, or think back to things that have made them angry in the past (Tamir et al, 2008).
Humans have had Countless Experiences of Enhanced Performance Because They Felt More Angry.
Used right, justifiable anger is a powerful social tool. However, their is a caveat for humans who harvest their rage for success, use anger with care, because most humans find anger to be the most difficult of all the emotions to effectively master.
Stay kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
Aarts, H., Ruys, K. I., Veling, H., Renes, R. A., de Groot, J. H. B., van Nunen, A. M., & Geertjes, S. (2010). The Art of Anger: Reward Context Turns Avoidance Responses to Anger-Related Objects Into Approach. Psychological Science, 21(10), 1406-1410. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610384152
Baumeister, R. F., Stillwell, A., & Wotman, S. R. (1990). Victim and perpetrator accounts of interpersonal conflict: Autobiographical narratives about anger. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(5), 994–1005. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.5.994
Pekrun, R., Marsh, H. W., Elliot, A. J., Stockinger, K., Perry, R. P., Vogl, E., Goetz, T., van Tilburg, W. A. P., Lüdtke, O., & Vispoel, W. P. (2023). A three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124(1), 145–178. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000448
Kassinove, H., Sukhodolsky, D. G., Tsytsarev, S. V., & Solovyova, S. (1997). Self-reported anger episodes in Russia and America. Journal of Social Behavior & Personality, 12(2), 301–324.
Effects of Fear and Anger on Perceived Risks of Terrorism: A National Field Experiment Jennifer S. Lerner jlerner@andrew.cmu.edu, Roxana M. Gonzalez, […], and Baruch Fischhoff+1View all authors and affiliations Volume 14, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.014
Extreme Metal Music and Anger Processing Publication Article in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, published May 2015. Authors Leah Sharman, Genevieve A. Dingle. DOI 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00272. PubMed ID 26052277. Dimensions I. pub.1035231310
Hedonic and Instrumental Motives in Anger Regulation Maya Tamir tamirm@bc.edu, Christopher Mitchell, and James J. GrossView all authors and affiliations Volume 19, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02088.
van Kleef, Gerben A. and De Dreu, Carsten K. W. and Manstead, Antony S. R., (2002) The Interpersonal Effects of Anger and Happiness on Negotiation Behavior and Outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=427920
Van Kleef, G. A., & Côté, S. (2007). Expressing anger in conflict: When it helps and when it hurts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1557–1569. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1557
