Stuff You Should Know - Can anger be a good thing?

Episode Date: March 19, 2009

Anger gets a bad rap, but this unpopular emotion can actually be beneficial to us. Tune in to this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com to get Josh and Chuck's entertaining take on why we lose our cool. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you, only I can see you. What you're doing is larger than yourself, almost like a religion. Like he was a god. Listen to The Turning Room of Mirrors on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. And be sure to check out the new Stuff You Should Know blog, now on the HowStuffWorks home page. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. Chuck, how you doing? This is Stuff You Should Know, I should

say. That's Chuck Bryant. I'm Josh Clark, as usual. I think by now, you people know, right? Answer us. If not, they just stumbled upon us, and they're like, who are these idiots? Exactly. We just lost him right then. So, to everybody else, it's us. Chuck, do you remember watching The Incredible Hulk? Well, I was going to say, as a kid, it ran from 1978 to 82. So, you were like 25, maybe 30? No, man, that was right in my wheelhouse. Yeah, I just came in on the tail end, but I had a significant impact on it. Love that show. So, yeah, that was what Bill Bixby slash Lou Ferrigno sharing the title role duties. Right. Well, actually, Bill Bixby played Bruce Banner, and Lou Ferrigno was the Hulk.

Right. And he was kind of a big guy, but not Hulk-like, you know? I think they had to use certain camera angles and shots to make it appear even bigger. Right. And of course, since I'm 90 years old, I remember Bill Bixby from the courtship of Eddie's father, which was before that. Wow. Sorry. Go ahead. Okay. So, well, Chuck, you remember, like oftentimes, I don't think it was every episode, but Bruce Banner, when somebody was pushing him around or something, I remember one, I think in the intro, he would be hitchhiking or something. Yeah. He was picked up by somebody who mistreated him, maybe. Right. I could be making, I make up memories a lot. Right. Right. It's healthy, good. But yeah, in most episodes, he would say something like,

please don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. And then inevitably, this is some jerk made him angry, and then he, you know, get ripped and turn green and just beat the tar out of him, right? Right. My favorite part, actually, he would always turn away as if he's trying to contain himself and then whip his head back around. He'd have those green eyes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He never bit his knuckles, though. I've always found that that helps to kind of keep things, you know, locked in. You should have tried that. It would have been a totally different showhead. He actually tried that, I think. Right. Well, actually, I bring up the Incredible Hulk, not because I just wanted to reminisce, although that was pleasant, Chuck. It

was. I wanted to use it as a segue. And what I was going to segue into was that it is entirely possible that the Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner, was a self-actualized human being, except for, like, throwing cars and stuff. He was in touch with his anger. He tried to keep it down, but eventually it came out, and ultimately he would go back to normal. Right. And the point is of this asinine intro is that anger can be beneficial. Absolutely. We tend to think that anger is just a bad thing, that there's only negative repercussions, that it's harmful. And as a matter of fact, there was, I think, some survey that I read that found 28% of people when asked about their own anger. They said that they thought it was a bad thing because it was useless and harmful.

That's not necessarily true. Right. They said inappropriate, too, which I thought was inappropriate. Yeah. To call anger inappropriate, I think it's completely appropriate many times. Well, I think part of the problem is, and this has just been positing here, we live in a society that has lots of expectations on gentility. Right. We're supposed to get along and go along and all that. So anger doesn't really have much of a place in a society like that. So I think we've kind of, a lot of us, including myself, have lost our ability to express ourselves through anger. Right. You know what Aristotle said? I love this quote. Let's hear it. Aristotle said this, the famous philosopher, of course,

not Aristotle Jones, who... Or Aristotle. How do you know Aristotle Jones? We'll talk about that later. The famous Aristotle said this, the man who is angry at the right things and with the right people, and further as he ought, when he ought, and as long as he ought, is praised. So basically, he's saying that you can be angry, but if you're angry at the right time and you handle it in the right way, then you were to be patted on the back, essentially. Right. And he was right on the money, if you ask me. So I did a little research and found, we have a great article on the site called How Anger Works. And I'm sorry to notice a pattern here. Like all the great articles on the site,

the byline says Molly Edmonds. Have you noticed that? I thought you were going to say yourself. No. I wouldn't do that, even if I thought it. Yes. Molly, who is a great writer and a dear friend and has her own podcast. Yes. Stuff Mom Never Told You with Kristen Conger, another great writer here. And we should probably stop all the plug-in and get to the anger. Right? You're angry at Molly because she's a better writer than you.

That is not true, Chuck. Stop this, please. In 1968, five black girls dressed in oversized military fatigues were picked up by the police in Montgomery, Alabama. I was tired and just didn't want to take it anymore. The girls had run away from a reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children. And they were determined to tell someone about the abuse they'd suffered there. Picture the worst environment for children that you possibly can.

I believe Mt. Mays was patterned after slavery. I didn't understand why I had to go through what I was going through and for what. I'm writer and reporter Josie Duffy-Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate how this reform school went from being a safe haven for black kids to a nightmare. And how those five black girls changed everything. All that on Unreformed. Listen to Unreformed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God, Chuck, I'm walking into the devil's den. The car sales, they just killed everybody that was home.

They start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot by the name of Lamora Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for this CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation. So, Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh, no, not by a long shot.

I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco. Join me for Murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, so there's basically three reasons why people get angry, right? Right. And one of them is to correct someone else's bad behavior. When you get angry, you're all of a sudden kind of bursting forth with energy. You're kind of pushing energy from yourself on to somebody else,

or at the very least creating a startle response on them. And that's a pretty good way of teaching somebody they don't need to do that to you again. Sure. I find that kind of distasteful behavior. Untward? Using untward, yes. My favorite word right now. That's one reason people get angry, or one way people use anger.

Another is to demonstrate power, which is really, again, off-putting. Not big fans of two of these three reasons, you know? Like, getting whoever can shout the loudest or, you know, get the most irked and irritated wins. And actually, that's the case sometimes, especially, again, in our genteel society. Right. The third reason anger exists, I think, is to address interpersonal conflict, right?

Like you're upset at something you've done? No. You're upset with something someone else did. Okay. And rather than just let it pass by, which will give you the opportunity to stew on it indefinitely, and arguably end the relationship, you are getting, you're using anger.

And this is not, you shouldn't confuse this, this aspect of anger with, you know, coming into somebody's office, slamming the door and like telling, letting them have it. I guess it's kind of a form of, it's an unproductive form. Right. This would more be like recognizing you're angry and saying, I got to do something about this, or else I'm not going to be friends with this person.

So actually, that use of anger is, it's actually a kind gesture because you're saying, I'm willing to confront you, even though it's going to be uncomfortable for me, including you. Right. Because I value our relationship. Okay. So those are reasons why you might demonstrate anger?

Yes. Well, I found an interesting study. It's a little dated. It's from 1993, but... The Clinton era? The Clinton era. I bet it's still valid. Someone did a women's anger study.

Okay. And interestingly found that out of the 535 women they surveyed, the three most common roots to a woman's anger, which ties in nicely with yours, is powerlessness, injustice, and the irresponsibility of others. So that kind of makes sense from what you just said. Well, I also read that women tend to become angered. There's actually something called anger triggers.

Right. And they're actually age, gender, and culture-specific oftentimes. They're stimuli that trigger our anger. Uh-huh. And women, and this is not the case across the board, but women tend to find anger triggers in affronts by people that they're close to. Right.

Family, friends, that kind of thing. Sure. Basically, you can't make a woman angry on average if you're a stranger. The exact opposite is the case with men. Men have a lot more patience with maybe their family and friends, but a stranger will just send them off the rails. That's me.

E.G. traffic. Oh, yeah. I hate strangers. Yeah. Who likes them? That's not true. Nobody. But yeah, I find that that's actually the case with me.

I would get extremely angry at someone I don't know because I'm a big injustice guy. Injustices really make me angry. People that don't think the rules apply to them. Like, let's say I'm sitting in traffic and we have the commuter lanes here in Atlanta, the carpal lane, and I'll see people, single riders,

whizzing by me in the carpal lane, and it just furies me. Do you chase them? Try to knock them off the road? No, because I'd have to get in the carpal lane. Oh, and you wouldn't do that? Well, no, because I'd get caught. Plus also, you would have no right to be angry at somebody else.

True. You know what that is? That's reason. So basically, when our anger is triggered by whatever it is, we have two things going on. Two regions in our brain start wrestling. Right. In like 30, like Greco-Roman wrestling, right?

Winner take all. Sure. Cage match? Pretty much. Possibly with shanks. Okay. I haven't determined that yet. But the frontal lobe, which is responsible for reason,

starts getting into it with the amygdala, which is responsible for emotion. Oh, yeah. And all of this wrestling match usually lasts about two seconds. It's a quick one. It is. And most of the time, the frontal lobe wins. Did you know that?

I didn't, but it kind of, I get that. Yeah, because think about it. Like, we'd all be walking around like half-cocked powdered kegs if the amygdala won, you know? Have you ever known anyone that was like that, that was really angry and would fight people and just made you nervous being around them? I wish, I would say his name.

Yeah. I still do this, sixth grade. I still to this day hate this kid's guts. And I would love to say his name so that somebody could hear it and go punch him in the stomach. Right. But I know Jerry will bleep it out. His name is Beep Beep.

Yeah, exactly. That's what his name is. Yeah. So, but yeah, this kid, he was short and he was really mad that he was short. Yeah. He bore a striking resemblance to... In 1968, five black girls dressed in oversized military fatigues

were picked up by the police in Montgomery, Alabama. I was tired and just didn't want to take it anymore. The girls had run away from a reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children and they were determined to tell someone about the abuse they'd suffered there. Picture the worst environment for children that you possibly can.

I believe Mt. Mays was patterned after slavery. I didn't understand why I had to go through what I was going through and for what. I'm writer and reporter Josie Duffy-Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate how this reform school went from being a safe haven for black kids to a nightmare and how those five black girls changed everything. All that on Unreformed.

Listen to Unreformed on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God, talking about walking into the devil's den.

The car sales, they just killed everybody that was home. And they start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot by the name of Lamar Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for this CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation.

So, Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh no, not by a long shot. Brian Bright Pacheco, join me for murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Did you ever see what was that? Captain Caveman and Son cartoon? Uh-huh.

He bore a resemblance to the sun. Really? Just kind of very, you know, caveman-esque, right? Yeah, yeah. And he was just such a little manipulative bully. He was Machiavellian, actually. And he used to have us get into fights and he would turn the whole class against you. He was an angry little kid.

And you know what? He was all amygdala. Really? Apparently. Yeah, I knew a guy like that when I lived in Arizona that was just, I was uncomfortable being around him because he would go to a bar someplace and just invite trouble. It was written all over his face.

It was his energy. And he scared me. I didn't like being around the guy. Yeah, you want to stay away from people? No, I'm a pacifist, man. I don't love her. I don't need that. I know you are, Chuck.

Not very angry. No, well, I have some issues here and there with anger, but like Aristotle says, I want to channel it in the right direction. Exactly. And at the right times, right? Right. So there was actually a guy who's a perfect case study in, you know, how the brain processes anger.

And his name was Phineas Gage. And he was this affable railroad man. He was a railroad worker. And in 1848, he took a rod through, I think, his right eye. Wow. And it went into his brain. And he actually, I don't know if they ever got it out all the way, but they managed to keep him alive and he survived and continued to live.

But he had frontal lobe damage, the reason part, his amygdala was perfectly fine. So we went from this affable friendly guy to a jerk for the rest of his life. Really? Yep. Wow. Phineas Gage. I've got some more gender related anger things if you want to talk about that. It's interesting.

Men and women are, it's amazing we ever get together how different we are. I know. I'm often odd at that. I agree. They found, when they studied women in anger and men, that men scored higher on physical aggression, go figure, passive aggression and experiences of impulsively dealing with their anger. And men usually had more, or more often had a revenge motive and scored higher in coercing

people. And women they found were found to be angry longer, more resentful and less likely to express their anger, but they also found interestingly that women used indirect aggression. They were more likely to write someone off that they knew and like, I'm never going to speak to her again. Yeah. Women do that. Yeah.

According to the study. And it kind of makes sense. I've known some women that have written off people in their life, but I don't know many men that have ever said, you know, I'm never going to speak to him again. I have. Really? I was about to say, I think I'm very feminine in that way because it's not the only way buddy.

That's not nice. Well, I guess we should probably get to the last part of this clunker. What's that? The UC Santa Barbara study. Oh yeah. That's all you. Okay. So these two psychiatrists, psychologists, shrinks put a bunch of college students together

in a room. And they said, you are to remain neutral, and this other group, we're going to make angry. Right. So they had them write about, I think extensively, some past experience they had that made them angry. And then they took both groups and had them analyze a series of essays about whether or not college students are any good at saving or, you know, were good with finances.

And some were good essays, some were terrible. And basically the distinction was the good essays, the arguments that had basis were, they cited old studies or facts, or they backed up their argument, whereas the bad studies didn't. But they were well written. And they found that the kids who were angry had better analytical skills. They scored consistently higher in picking out the good arguments from the bad. Right.

Were they sifting through the muck and focusing on, you know, just the parts that they needed to? Is that what was going on there? You just jumped from A to C Chuck. Oh, okay. Well, tell me about B. Well, I was trying to tell you about B. Sorry.

Anyway, yes, that's exactly right. I think let's just strangle this horse, it's almost dead. They found that, well, they concluded, it wasn't proven, but they concluded that when you're angry, you're very focused. And so you're kind of, you're cutting away the fat, as it were. So and if you're neutral, you're more likely to be taken in by flowery language or something like that. You're angry, you're focused.

The other theory that they had was when you're angry, you want to punish somebody. So you're probably going to punish somebody who's not doing as good a job or somebody who's not quite up to snuff, and in this case, it would have been a poorly argued essay. So there you go. Well, I think the secret is to channel your anger into positivity. There's nothing wrong with being angry, but I know that there are studies that show that if you suppress anger, you're more likely to die than if you don't hold on to those feelings.

So suppressing your anger is not a good move. Yeah, anyone who's ever seen the Angry Dad episode of The Simpsons can tell you it is life-threatening. True. But blowing up at someone and going off on someone and being physically aggressive is also not good. So it's all about doing it in the right way. Sure.

Good advice, Chuck. I hope it didn't rain on your parade there with you. No, you totally didn't. You did great, buddy. Thanks. Yeah. I would want you to be angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

You would rain blows upon me. I love that phrase. Well, let's just get to listener mail time. But first, I know Chuck wants to tell everybody about something we like to call our web blog or blog. Right. We, like, 90% of people around the world now have a blog. We've joined the blogosphere, and the blog is through the website, HowStuffWorks.com,

and you can find it via the home page. It's called Stuff You Should Know, and it's my buddy Josh and I just kind of getting out and some interesting topics to talk about and trying to engage the stuff you should know community. Yeah. And it's updated at least twice a day. Yeah. Chuck posts once, I post once.

So go check it out. And like Chuck said, you can access that through the home page at HowStuffWorks.com. And Chuck, please, is it time for listener mail yet? Today, Josh, I have just a single listener mail. This is from... This must be significant. Yeah. This is from Adam Asher, and I don't know where Adam's from, but he says, here.

So he may be from the U.K., or he may be one of those guys that says cheers. He's an Anglophile. Yeah, perhaps. He says this. This is about the CIA LSD episode, did a quick recap? Yeah. The CIA used to dose heroin addicts, Johns, and black inmates at prisons with LSD to find out if they could use it as a truth serum or something like that.

Perfect. And the name of the program was MKUltra. Yes. That was the Umbrella Project. Right. So I found this very interesting. He says, I just had a comment on that episode. A few years back, maybe 10 or 12 years ago, there was a video game made called MKUltra.

In it, you were a weird costume demand with a gun for an arm, and you went through and violently killed everything in your midst. The world you were in was very interesting, different colors, the walls moved, weird sounds. There was a talking dog at your sidekick, and he said that when we talked about the MKUltra program, he made him think of his video game. The thing is, he can't remember it and doesn't have any further details. So I'm really interested to know if that was the name of the game, and if there was a video game that literally poked fun at the CIA for doing this kind of thing.

Or if that guy was on LSD. True. So if anyone out there knows of this game and has any more details, I'd love to hear about it and get a copy of it. I want to play this game. Yeah. Well, that's... So thank you, Adam Asher.

Sure. If you want to share any of your acid flashbacks with us or just say hi, you can shoot us an email if you can see the keys and they're not speaking to you at StuffPodcast at HowStuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff.

Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jazz pack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, The Turning, Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balanjean. He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you, only I can see you. What you're doing is larger than yourself, almost like a religion. Like he was a God. Listen to The Turning, Room of Mirrors on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts.