If you want to attain your goals, get upset.
New research suggests that anger might help people overcome hurdles or impediments to their goals.
Research released this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology discovered that individuals who completed a range of difficult tasks in a state of anger outperformed those who felt grief, desire, or humor.
Heather Lench, the study’s primary author and a professor of psychology and brain sciences at Texas A&M University, believes the findings indicate that individuals may utilize anger as a motivator.
“We found that anger led to better outcomes in situations that were challenging and involved obstacles to goals,” Lench told me. However, the study found that anger did not increase people’s performance on straightforward assignments.
The study included six tests that tested whether anger helped people complete various tasks. According to Lench, the most fascinating result came from the first trial, which examined the number of word puzzles individuals could answer in various emotional states.
The experiment involved 233 Texas A&M undergraduate students. We randomly assigned each student one of the following emotions: anger, desire, sadness, amusement, or neutral. We presented them with a series of pictures, each lasting five seconds, to elicit their emotions. For example, we showed comments directed at the school’s football squad to those who expressed anger.
The participants then had 20 minutes to unscramble as many words as possible from four sets of seven anagrams shown on a computer screen. The complexity of the sets changed, and after individuals completed a challenge, they were unable to return to try it again. Computer software tracked how long participants worked on each problem.
The findings revealed that furious individuals answered more puzzles than those experiencing any other emotion. Most strikingly, furious students had 39% more problems than students who felt indifferent. Participants who were furious were more persistent in solving the riddles, according to Lench.
“When people were angry and they persisted, they were more likely to succeed,” she informed me. “However, in all other emotional states, they were more likely to fail. So it appears that people were more persistent when they were upset.
Other trials looked at whether anger may push students to sign a petition, help them score well on a video game, or encourage them to cheat on logic and reasoning tasks in order to win awards.
In all difficult situations, upset people were more likely to succeed.
Is being frustrated always a beneficial thing?
According to psychologists, not all types of rage are beneficial in reaching goals.
Intense anger can cause bodily reactions such as sweaty hands, trouble breathing, and a high heart rate. According to a 2022 study published in the European Heart Journal, anger may lead to the development of certain cardiovascular illnesses, including heart failure in males and diabetics. The same journal published a 2021 study that found a link between intense rage and the onset of strokes.
During a lover’s dispute, anger can escalate to harsh and demeaning speech, which can ruin the relationship, according to Lench. If someone wants attention and support from their partner, it may also help them express their needs.
“Anger may be a motivator. But it does not imply we stop thinking,” Lench explained. “So when we feel angry, stopping and thinking about why we’re angry is probably an important step.”
Severe outbursts of rage can impair one’s capacity to complete activities, according to Raymond Tafrate, a clinical psychologist and professor in Central Connecticut State University’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
“There’s some medium ground. Some anger is beneficial, but I believe we need to discuss the other side as well,” said Tafrate, who was not involved in the current study. “Anger that’s somewhat mild or on the moderate end of the spectrum is probably life-enhancing for many people.”
Tafrate emphasized the importance of accepting anger as a potentially helpful emotion rather than avoiding it.
“Anger can be an important signal that things aren’t going well and that you need to make a change,” Tafrate told me.
Communicating one’s anger immediately in social circumstances may even inspire people to listen to your point of view, increasing the odds of reaching an agreement, according to Todd Kashdan, a psychology professor at George Mason University who was not involved in the current study.
This is called the uncomfortable caveat because it shows the other person that you don’t want communication criticism. “You just want them to know that there is an issue, that you understand it and that you want to provide a solution,” Kashdan explained. “Then what happens is you’re bringing their defenses down.”
Even if your remarks come out as stinging or confrontational, Kashdan added, individuals may still be open to your concerns.