THE UPSIDE TO : ANGER

There maybe an upside to anger: People put more effort in action to obtain objects associated with angry faces.

When we think of anger, our thoughts naturally turn to unpleasant scenes and negative emotions. We generally consider showing anger to be a sign of weakness, to be avoided unless absolutely necessary.
But could there be an upside to anger? A new study in Psychological Science explains that when we associate an object with anger we want the object (more than if we did not associate it with anger) — a motivation usually linked to positive emotions.
Psychological scientist Henk Aarts of Utrecht University in the Netherlands and coauthors asked participants in a study to watch a computer screen while images of common objects, such as a mug or a pen, appeared on the screen. What participants didn’t realize was that immediately before each object appeared, the screen flashed either a neutral face, an angry face, or a fearful face.
Each subliminal image effectively associated a specific emotion with each object. At the end of the experiment, the participants were asked how much they wanted each object. In a second version of the same experiment, they squeezed a handgrip to get the desired object: Those who squeezed harder were more likely to win the object.
The researchers found that people put more effort in action to obtain objects associated with angry faces, but did not do this for items associated with fear.“This makes sense if you think about the evolution of human motivation,” says Aarts. For example, if there is limited food in an environment, individuals that associate food with anger (and turn aggression into an attack response to get the food) are more likely to survive.
“If the food does not make you angry or doesn’t produce aggression in your system, you may starve and lose the battle,” Aarts says. So when your toddler screams “I want it!” while grabbing chocolates in the store, take heart — they are just showing increased motivation.