Do you want to achieve your goals? very angry

Self-help books and Mister Wonderful clubs have led us to believe that happiness It is the only emotion that will help us achieve our goals. They demonize negative emotions, cataloging them as something completely harmful. However, if after so many years of human evolution we continue to feel sad or angry in certain situations, there must be a reason for it. There are many reasons why these emotions can be beneficial, and now we know one more; Well, according to a study recently published by scientists from American Psychological Associationanger can help us overcome difficulties.

This is not the first time such a hypothesis has been put forward. It is logical that anger has its benefits, since it usually occurs when the goal is difficult. Therefore it can help us focus all our attention to finally achieve this. Many studies in recent decades have analyzed how true this is. But none have been as comprehensive as this one, which has conducted several experiments to provide much more detailed information about the benefits of anger.

His conclusion is yes: anger is useful. Although this does not mean that we should always be angry. Positive emotions are much more pleasant to experience and also have many benefits. Ideally, you will feel a combination of both. Therefore, we must stop demonizing negative emotions or even feeling guilty when we experience them.

Experiments showing the benefits of anger

These scientists conducted several experiments to see how anger can help us achieve certain goals.

In the first, participants had to complete a series very simple puzzles, based on anagram resolution. Before the test they were shown a series images aimed at evoking various emotions.

Among the photographs that caused going to, there was a man or woman pointing an accusing finger at them, a billboard that said “God Hates (the name of the participants’ university),” a T-shirt that said “I Hate (the name of the state where the participants live),” or insults to their department’s mascot . There were also images of food aimed at creating neutral emotions. sadness It was created using photographs of crying people at funerals, hungry dogs or pelicans covered in oil. And finally, happiness and fun They were searched for by images of kittens playing, puppies with faces that looked like smiles, or boys and girls smiling.

As we wanted to demonstrate, on average, participants who viewed the anger set images decided more tests. Anger seemed to be proven to be beneficial, but they wanted to do more tests to be sure.

Anger makes us cheaters

In the second experiment, participants wanted to test whether anger makes us take more actions. traps.

To do this, they conducted a previous experiment with some variations. The first was that a prize was offered those who solved more tests, which in this case were number puzzles.

They had 5 minutes solve as many as possible. But they were not told that it was impossible to carry out many tests in such a short time.

After completing the test, participants were informed that the next experiment would be conducted in a different room, so the researcher had to leave for a while to prepare. Therefore, to speed up the results, they were asked to count on their own. how many puzzles did they solve correctly?

Participants whose anger was provoked committed more cheating. That is, they gave a false answer, and more puzzles solved. This doesn’t mean lying is good. But it should be expected that anyone who wants to achieve their goals at any cost will resort to some tricks or lies to achieve this. Surely someone comes to mind for all of us. Perhaps we will see his image during a rally or election campaign.

What cannot be called

In the third experiment, participants exposed to different emotions had to play ski video game. This could be very difficult, for example in slalom, in which you had to avoid small flags, or, much easier, simply in free fall.

Therefore, in the first, the abilities of each person played a very important role. Therefore, the results marked by emotions were not so clear-cut. After all, no matter how much we strive to achieve our goals, achieving them will be more difficult if they require a skill we don’t have.

Other experiments that put anger in different positions

Up to this point, anger was artificially provoked even before the puzzles were solved. But what would happen if the test itself were the cause? going to?

To answer this question, it was carried out one more testin which participants had to press a button space computer keyboard when a certain signal appears on the screen. Once again they were promised a reward, this time financial, that would increase their desire to achieve their goals.

First, the signal appeared on the screen long enough for participants to respond. However, after its difficulty has increasedto make them angry.

Thus, it was seen that those who were angry performed better in subsequent tests.

We also wanted to check whether this is excitement caused by anger, which actually forces us to improve our focus and achieve our goals. To obtain answers, an experiment similar to the previous ones was conducted, but with a separate group, in which participants were asked to complete aerobic exercise.

This showed that anxiety itself does not make us improve our goals, although it may seem to be one of the factors influencing why anger makes us that way competitive.

There was even a study conducted based on the election of the government’s president. It turned out that those participants who were most angry at the thought of their candidate losing were the most I’m more likely to go vote no matter who that politician was. Anger therefore motivates us to act in the face of what we perceive as injustice.

Benefit from anger without turning it into danger

All of this shows that it may be time to stop talking about positive or negative emotions. There are just emotions. We like some more, others less, but we can do everything. learn or benefit. Obviously, anger should be seen as an impulse for our benefit without harming others. If this causes aggression and other truly dangerous reactions, you should be careful and even seek help from a professional psychologist.

But this is an exception. Usually a little anger won’t hurt us. Don’t let a self-help book stop us from being sad or angry when we need to be. Because yes, sometimes it is a necessity, and there is nothing wrong with that.