![]() So Black says when he is performing, he often finds himself trying to make sure an audience doesn't get too angry.Īnd if he finds out his flight home has been delayed, he stays calm. "It's where it leads to that's gotten its rap," he says. And he understands why the emotion has such a bad reputation. "One of the things that we learn from our families, from our parents, from teachers is how to deal with our various emotions and most particularly anger," he says.īlack has spent much of his life learning how to deal with his anger. He thinks our ability to use these circuits probably depends more on nurture than nature. One way the human brain may differ from an animal's is in the circuits used to control emotions, including anger, Just says. And a study showed that it was able to identify anger most of the time and to differentiate that emotion from others, like disgust. Just was part of a team that trained a computer to recognize the brain activity associated with emotions in people. If so, that suggests the potential for anger is something we're born with. There is a working theory that because aggression is so common and because it's more than a reflexive response, the inner state that goes with aggression must be common too. "Is that because they're all using the same basic brain mechanisms and brain chemicals?" "You look at dogs fighting, you look at fish fighting, you look at flies fighting, you look at people fighting," he says. In both animals and people, Anderson says, aggressive behavior tends to be associated with similar physical responses like a racing pulse, higher blood pressure and elevated levels of hormones such as testosterone.Īnd he says the similarities in both behavior and biological responses raise a question about brain evolution and aggression. "If a squirrel steals a nut from another squirrel, there's an adaptive value to arousing the squirrel who was the victim of the theft and having it chase at the other squirrel and beat him up and try to recover his nut," Anderson says. For example, an aggressive response can help a creature survive if it's attacked or robbed. "You get angry and go, what do we do?"Īnger appears to play a similar role in the animal world, Anderson says. "What anger is good for, too, is to generate energy to move on, to figure out how to do something," he says. On the other hand, there's also evidence that extreme outbursts may trigger a heart attack.Īnd, of course, being on the receiving end of this emotion can hurt.īut for Black, anger is a powerful motivator. There's evidence that expressing anger can reduce levels of stress hormones. "And I think it has to do with the fact that I've spent a lot of my life yelling and screaming about things onstage." "I have the best blood pressure of anybody I know," he says. After a day banking irritation, he says, he is ready to be onstage "yelling about something that has nothing to do with my phone service or my cable carrier, my cable provider."īoth Anderson and Black say expressing anger can be useful.įor Black, it's a matter of maintaining his internal balance. Generalizing and maintaining an angry state is familiar territory for Black. Shots - Health News Science Of Sadness And Joy: 'Inside Out' Gets Childhood Emotions Right Research also shows that aggressive behavior is remarkably consistent across species, Anderson says. "I'm comfortable calling that state anger as long as we are clear that we're not to the subjective feeling," he says. So Anderson and other scientists focus on animals' behavior and on biological changes like heart rate, hormone levels and brain activity.īy those measures, Anderson says, there is strong evidence that animals experience some sort of internal state that drives their aggressive behavior. And, of course, there's no way to know for sure how an animal is feeling. What kinds of things? During an hourlong conversation, Black offers a sampler: "Idiotic debates that go on in Congress, health care, your cable provider, chemicals that we allow to be dumped, sensitivity training, the president, the Iraq War, exercise."Īnimals presumably have other triggers. "What anger is good for, too, is to generate energy to move on, to figure out how to do something," comedian and anger artist Lewis Black says. ![]()
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