March 28, 2018 • 35 mins
Will and Mango have lots of questions about why people get angry. Like: Why do humans all make the same angry face? Is lying down while angry better for your health? And will being angry actually make you more creative? (Spoiler: your boss and kids might be working overtime to make you more creative.) Plus, we look at the science of tickling and solve the puzzle of how to tickle yourself!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what will what's that mango? So this is a
weird thing I remember from high school. But I was
up late one night and I was watching a PBS interview,
you know, the way all the cool kids did when
we were in high school when they're up late, of course,
of course, but the guest was actually Rudy Giuliani, who
at the time was famously cleaning up New York, and
the interview asked him, how are you so effective? And
(00:23):
he said, well, I just get annoyed by something, then
I get really angry. Like the way he talked about
it was almost like he hulked out on the topic.
And then he said, I used that anger to work
like crazy. All right, So you know, I know there
are a lot of economic theories about why New York
got so much safer in the nineties, but the violence,
they're definitely dropped during his term, Like there's no denying that. Yeah.
(00:44):
People used to refer to it like a Disneyland then.
Or around the same time I saw the interview, I
read this thing about Bill Clinton and apparently he'd get
insanely angry every morning, like every morning he just unleashed
on his top staffers and they called it an SMO
or a standard morning out, and apparently his anger would disappear.
You know, they said it burned clean. But as a kid,
(01:05):
the whole thing made me wonder, if I want to
be a more effective leader, do I need to be
more angry? Because I'm not generally someone who gets that angry,
or at least I wasn't until I had kids. But
that's what today's show is all about, the science of anger.
And we've also thrown in a little signs of tickling
to lighten things up. Let's dive in aither podcast listeners,
(01:45):
Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always,
I'm joined by my good friend Mangu show ticketer on
the other side of the soundproof glass sporting this blood
red face pain, I mean blood red, and the angriest
expression I have ever seen. That's our friend and producer
Tristan mc So. Do we know why Tristan looks so
medacine today because we're like a minute into this and
I'm already super uncomfortable. Oh, I'm with you on this, Mago.
(02:07):
I don't know. I think it's a new thing he
wanted to try. Apparently he'd read about this. You know,
this constant visual reminder of anger is supposed to help
us stay on topic. But I really I don't think
we're gonna have any trouble staying on track today because
today we're talking about all the fascinating science behind anger.
So we're gonna look at both the psychological and the
physiological effects is as well as the common triggers that
(02:29):
prompted in the first place. And along the way, we're
gonna explore a few potential ways to keep those angry
feelings in check, you know, the next time somebody cuts
you off in traffic or just does whatever to make
you angry. All right, mago, So so where do you
want to start? Well, since Triston literally has us being
read this morning, let's start with the idea of the
angry face. So you know this one. It's when someone
(02:51):
like lowers their eyebrows. They've got tight lips, flared nostrils,
all the telltale signs of someone's feeling mad. We're familiar
with it because anger is something we've all witnessed and
felt firsthand. But the crazy thing is, it's not just
the feeling that's universal, it's the expression itself. Social scientists
have actually found that the specific muscle contractions that cause
our angry face are recognized across cultures, and in fact,
(03:14):
even children who have been blind since birth make the
face when they're feeling angry, and that's without ever having
seen the expression themselves. I find stuff like that just
so fascinating. So so this isn't a learned behavior then,
So does that mean that an angry face is just
like part of our biology or something. Yeah, so many
researchers think the specific representation of anger is an involved
(03:35):
trait that most humans share. So the question then becomes why, Like,
what's the advantage of this universal angry face? So do
they have like do they have an answer for this? Well,
I mean we do have a few good guesses. For
for example, most psychologists see anger as a way to
signal that you feel wronged or that you're unhappy about it.
But researchers that you see Santa Barbara and like Griffith
(03:55):
University in Australia have actually gone a step further and
according to them, anger evolved to serve as kind of
a bargaining tool during times of conflict, and, as one
professor of psychology put it, the greater the harm and
individual can inflict the more bargaining power he or she wields,
And researchers actually called this bargaining through menace. It's a
specific term. And the idea is that anger is a
(04:17):
way to let others know that something is unacceptable to
you and that there's going to be conflict until the
offending party acts to make the situation better. All right,
So we've kind of evolved this shared facial expression to
help deliver that message to each other. And that that
all makes sense. But why this specific expression, like why
the lowered brows or the flared nostrils. So I looked
into this a little as well, and all the features
(04:39):
that make up the angry face are natural signs of
aggression in their own right. I mean, it's something we
see in the animal kingdom as well. Right, Like one
researcher said, quote, you can think of the anger face
as a constellation of features, each of which makes you
appear physically more formidable. Well that's interesting, though, I do
have to say, like it's a little unsettling to think
that anytime my kids they're making an angry face, they're
(05:01):
they're actually kind of threatening physical violence. Well of my kids,
it certainly helps their bargaining stance. But one of the
lead researchers that u CSP John Toby, has actually suggested
something much more strange. He thinks that angry faces among
friends and family might be a little different. In this case,
they're more of a way to emotionally manipulate loved ones
into cooperating in the long term. So, for example, if
(05:23):
a friend blows off your plans to hang out and
instead goes to see a movie, you're likely to feel
angry because they slighted you and showed less respect than
you expected. Al Right, So in this case, showing anger
is like a way to guilt trip your friends into
treating you with a little more thoughtfulness or consideration or
something exactly, and to be used as the example of
each person having a mental cooperation control doll. So the
(05:46):
anger you express is both an implicit threat to turn
down your own dial and and not so friendly push
for them to turn theirs up and treat you better. Okay, So,
so my kids aren't exactly physically threatening me. There's there's
just emotionally manipulating me. I feel so much better about this, Magno. Right,
So we we've talked about what happens on the surface
when we feel angry. So now let's look at what's
(06:07):
actually going on inside our bodies. And it's really comes
down to the amygdala, which is the part of the
brain that deals with the emotional responses to, you know,
to outside stimuli. Now, the amygdala processes whatever anger triggering
a venture experiencing, and then responds and as little as
a quarter of a second. And so what it does
is orders the release of special neurotransmitters that you know,
(06:29):
kind of ready you to take physical action. So now
you've got all kinds of chemicals surging through your body.
You've got adrenaline and noor adrenaline and epinephrin nor epinephrin,
and and these quickly drive up your blood pressure and
your heart rate. And so this is why people turn
red into face when they're upset, right, Like all that
blood is rushing to their extremities. Yeah, that's right. And
(06:51):
you know, thankfully that increased blood flow also heads to
the prefrontal cortex, and and that's the part of the
brain that's most associated with reason and judgment. Now, I deally,
the responses in the amygdala and the frontal lobe, they
kind of balanced each other out, and then we're able
to regain our composure instead of just you know, punching
somebody in the face or breaking a window or whatever
that extreme response might be. So thank God for the
(07:13):
frontal lobe is basically what you're saying, pretty much. And
you know, in fact, one quick example that shows just
how much we owe to our frontal lobes is is
that famous story of Phineas Gauge. So he was the
railroad worker in the eighteen forties and he suffered this
terrible accident where an iron rod shot through his cheek
and and out the top of his head. Now, amazingly,
(07:34):
Gauge survived the incident, but you know, his prefrontal cortex
wasn't nearly as lucky, and so from then on he
developed this reputation for being quote fitful, irreverent, and obstinate,
and for having quote the animal passions of a strong man. So,
in other words, without a functioning frontal lobe to inhibit
his anger, Gauge was no longer capable of self control.
(07:56):
And this was such a departure from who he had
been before the accident, and his friends actually considered him
a completely different person. They even started referring to him
as no longer gauge. So you and I have discussed
gauged so many times over the years, and it's weird
how it's still creepy to me. Okay, so we've covered
the surface expression of anger and what's going on behind
(08:16):
the scenes, But what about the external factors that make
us angry in the first place, Like, is there any
consensus on what sets people off? Well? There is, actually,
I mean, it turns out the triggers for our anger
are pretty much as universal as our expressions of that anger,
which is a shame because I like to think of
myself as special and totally individual and unique, but instead
my anger is just so basic. But uh, well, what
(08:39):
are these universal triggers? Don't worry, mengo, You're still pretty unique.
It's just that that's your anger. Triggers are not unique.
But but you know, any of these incidents that you
can think of that make people angry, including the ones
we've mentioned, like being cut off in traffic or you know,
feeling slighted by a friend or whatever it may be,
these can all be sorted into these broader types. So
(08:59):
there's neuroscientists at the University of Maryland. His name is R.
Douglas Fields, and he's identified the triggers and narrowed them
into nine categories that cover all these potential situations. And
I can feel your little skeptical on this, So I'm
just gonna throw a mnemonic device at you, Mango. I know,
we love nemonics, and that's how you keep track of these.
And the mnemonic is life morts. Have you ever heard
(09:21):
of life? Yeah, So here's what it stands for. So
each letter is something different. So the L is life
and that's basically like defending yourself against attackers that we've
got insult, which makes sense. You've got family or you know,
protecting loved ones, environment, protecting your territory. You've got mate order,
which you know is kind of responding to social injustice,
(09:43):
resources tribe and stopped as the last one, or that's
like escaping restraint or imprisonment. So so life morts is
as simple as that, Mango. So I mean, that does
cover all the bases. But I've got to admit, like
the acronym lifeboard just makes me ang Like why make
an acronym that's hard to remember? Like it would be
(10:04):
so much better if it's like Tom's rifle right, which
actually makes sense, or of like fimber Lows, like when
you get angry after fimber Lows, but I like Tom's rifle.
Did you come up without yourself? Well, I looked it
up in an acronym finder. That's that's that's pretty good.
But back to life more, it's it's easy to imagine
how anger could be completely justified in in like every
(10:27):
one of these situations, like the urge to protect your
family or push back against social injustice. Like, there's not
just relatable feelings, they're also respectable ones, at least in
most cases. Yeah, definitely. I mean, we tend to think
of anger as a primarily negative emotion or a destructive
influence that needs to be curbed or controlled, but it
is worth remembering that there can be specific situations where
(10:50):
it's actually beneficial to react with anger. For example, social
psychologist site anger is one of the most powerful motivating
forces we have. So just think about a time where
you were angry when things weren't going your way or
you felt like everybody was out to get you. You know,
sometimes that desire to turn things around or prove the
world wrong actually can really motivate you, which is a
(11:10):
good point. And it's funny, like anger motivates me when
I'm playing sports. If someone fouls me or tells me
I can't do something, I just concentrate so much harder
and feel like I have a point to prove. But
it throws me off my game when I'm trying to
do something creative, Like I almost can't think when I'm angry.
But I've read that for some people, anger can actually
give you a temporary boost and creativity, Like you know
(11:30):
that burst of energy you describe when people experience anger. Well,
one side effect of that is a more flexible, freewheeling
thought process, and studies have actually shown that people who
feel angry tend to take a less systematic approach to
problem solving and are actually able to see a big
picture of you more easily. It is a little bit surprising,
and I think it comes down to being able to
recognize when it's appropriate to feel angry and and when
(11:53):
maybe it's in your best interest to calm down. And
that's really the whole point behind life marts. I just
wanted to say life sports again, but I mean, you know,
the hope is that by learning to identify these triggers.
We we then kind of gain a better understanding of
of where our anger is coming from, and you know
whether it's something that should be channeled or suppressed. And
and that's actually not a new idea. I actually came
(12:15):
across this Aristotle quote while we were doing our research,
and it sums up this idea of using anger in
a beneficial way. So here's what he says. Anybody can
become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with
the right person, and to the right degree, and at
the right time, and for the right purpose and in
the right way, that is not within everybody's power. That
is not easy. Well, I mean that sounds like good advice.
(12:37):
And I know there's more to say about how to
turn your anger to your advantage, as well as how
to shut it down when it's not doing you any favors.
But before we get into that, I thought would be
fun to take a little break from anger and lending
the mood a little. I don't know, Mango, you might
be proving Tristan right. I think we're going off on
these tangents. He might start painting his face against. But
I promised we'd go in the opposite direction. Of anger,
(12:58):
just for a few minutes to talk about the science tickling.
But first a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
Genius and we're talking about the science of anger, or
(13:18):
at least we were talking about the science of anger.
Now apparently we're talking about tickling. So so what's the
story here, Mega, Well, this week I was asking myself
all these questions ahead of today's show, like how does
the body respond to anger? What causes us to get angry?
And for whatever reason, it just reminds me of a
topic we tackled a few years back at Mental Flass,
which was this question of why do we laugh when
we're tickled? And the more I thought about it, the
(13:40):
more I realized the two reactions are really two sides
of the same coin. All right, well that's interesting, so
refresh my memory, Like why do we laugh when we
get tickled? I mean, it has something to do with
our nerve endings in our skin, right, that's right. So
when the nerve endings in our epidermists are lightly stimulated
by touch, they send a signal to the brain's nervous system.
And there are actually two different of the brain that
(14:00):
processed the signal. The first is the somatosensory cortex, which
analyzes all the physical qualities of the touch, such as
the amount of pressure it exerts. And the second reason
is the anterior singulated cortex, and this is the region
in charge of pleasurable feelings. All right, So the tickling
sensation we feel as a result of the combined analysis
from those two regions of the brain. And and I
(14:22):
see the connection between the outside stimulus and the brain's response.
But besides that, like, what's the connection between anger and
tickling here? Well, there's a study out of Germany where
they used mri I scanners to see which parts of
the brain light up when someone laughs, and while laughing
at a joke activated many of the same areas of
the brain is laughing while being tickled. The tickling laughter
(14:43):
also activated the hypothalamus, and that's the part of the
brain that controls our fight or flight response when we
feel threatened, and well, anger pushes that response in the
direction of conflict. Tickling actually does the opposite, all right.
So you're saying, like, we laugh when we're tickled because
because what like because we're giving up or something. Yeah,
So that's actually one theory that laughter is meant to
(15:03):
signal submission to whoever is doing the tickling, and I
guess it's in the hopes that they'll show mercy and
break off. I. I I mean, when when I'm tickling my kids,
that's the last thing I want to do. Stop tickling them. So,
but why would our bodies treat tickling as a threat
in the first place, Well, it helps to know that
there are actually two different kinds of tickles. So one
is the kind that results in laughter whenever sensitive areas
(15:25):
like our armpits or bellies are tickled, and the other
is brought by extremely light touches and tends to produce
an itching sensation rather than laughter. So the second kind
is the one that you feel when a cat's tail
brushes your skin or I guess want to bug crawls
across your arm. And that's led some scientists to conclude
that this kind of tickling is an early warning system
to help us defend against potentially dangerous pests like spiders
(15:48):
or mosquitoes. So it could be something similar with the
other kind of tickling. When when someone unexpectedly touches you
in in a vulnerable part of your body, the tickling
kicks in and we can just react as fast as possible,
which makes a lot of sense. Like you tense up
so much when this kind of thing happens, and you know,
instinctively try to shield like whichever part of you is
being tickled in that moment exactly. And this is also
(16:09):
why it's pretty much impossible to tickle yourself. So no
matter how discreet you try to be, your own touch
is never truly unexpected in the way someone else's can be.
And that's because the cerebellum can predict sensations that arise
from your own movements, but not from other people's. So basically,
when the cerebellum knows what's about to happen, that prediction
overrides the response in your brain that would otherwise lead
(16:30):
to the tickle. All right, well that's fair enough, but
but I notice you said pretty much impossible to tickle yourself.
So there are there exceptions to this. Yeah, I was
surprised to learn this, but there are a couple of
cases where self tickling is possible, but neither is very
easy to test for yourself. So the first is if
you're schizophrenic. For whatever reason. The minds of people with
schizophrenia aren't really great at predicting the sensory outcomes of
(16:51):
their own movements, and the second case is admittedly kind
of cheating. But according to this neuro scientist, David Eagleman,
he claims, if you build a machine that allows you
to move a feather, but the feather moves only after
a delay, like of a second, then you can actually
tickle yourself because the results of your own actions now
surprise you. I don't know, Mago, I can't say for sure,
(17:12):
but I'm probably not going to go to the effort
of building a feather tickling machine. But but we'll see.
But I mean, it does make me curious. So, like,
if you can see that someone else is about to
tickle you, like you're you're watching their hand, Like, why
does it still tickle when they touch you? So my
guess would be that it's because your brain can't predict
exactly where they're going to touch you or with what
(17:32):
force or rhythm. But there is a way to suppress
the ticklers feeling you get from someone else, and it's
only really by taking advantage of the same system that
prevents you from tickling yourself. So all right, what do
you mean by that? So you know you can't tickle
yourself because your brain knows what you're about to do.
But if you place your hand on top of the
hand of some person trying to tickle you, then you
(17:53):
can basically trick your brain into thinking it knows where
the touch is coming from, which cancels out the tickling sensation.
Isn't that Yeah, this whole thing just makes me feel
so weird, Like like, I don't like somebody tickling me.
I don't like the idea of somebody tickling me. I
don't like the idea of putting my hand on top
of somebody else's hand. Is tickling a bit, but I
feel like something doesn't add up, Like if the feeling
of being tickled is a reflex, like this biological reaction
(18:17):
to this stimulus, then we should be able to tickle
ourselves like and the hand holding trick you mentioned shouldn't
be able to stifle that reflex. Well, that's another thing
tickling has in common with anger. Well, there's a biological
component to both. They're also largely dependent on social cues
and context. So, for example, if you remember that thing
we were talking about earlier about getting angry at a
(18:38):
friend who bailed on plans and went to see a
movie instead. Well, just imagine if you cancel the plans
because his wife went into labor. The and result is
still the same for you, right, Like you don't get
to hang out with your friend, but your emotional response
to each of those scenarios would likely be totally different,
and because of that context, your natural inclination towards anger
is actually subdued. All right, So you're saying the same
(19:00):
thing happens when with tickling. Yeah, it's it's true. So
think about Chinese tickle torture, or better yet, Roman tickle torture.
So ancient Romans would do this thing where they tie
down a criminal, soak their feet in salt solution, and
then bring in a herd of goats to lick it off,
and they just repeat this process over and over. But
the people being tickled weren't laughing. They were screaming or
(19:22):
crying because it was torturous to be in that position.
Yeah that sounds awful and like the worst form of
torture possible. But I'm curious, like, is there any social
benefit to tickling or is it all just this psychological torture. Well,
there is an upside thankfully. And on the positive end
of the spectrum, tickling can be a bonding exercise. It's
one of the earliest forms of communication between mothers and babies.
(19:43):
Like you see a mother tickle, which makes the baby laugh,
which makes the mother tickle more, which makes the baby
laugh more, and on and on, and it's kind of
a primal conversation. And it's not just humans who do this,
like chimps, gorillas, orangutans and rats also tickled to the
point of laughter as a way of bonding. And as
you probably noticed, rats are definitely the odd men out
in that group. Yeah, and I know we've talked about
(20:05):
this fact before, like that rats laugh when they're tickled,
but I actually didn't know that was helping them, you know,
bond in some way. It does, and and probably my
favorite example of that comes from this researcher named Jock
panks Up. He discovered that tickled rats purposely seek out
the hands of the specific human lab workers who had
tickled them previously, like they remembered who made them laugh
(20:26):
and they come back from war. Is that crazy? It
is crazy. I have to say I'm not ready to
talk about tickling anymore, but I am glad that we
went on that tangent so so nice job on that one.
But now that we're feeling happy and refreshed, I feel
like we need to talk a little bit more about anger. Uh,
this show is such an emotional roller coaster, But let's
take a quick break and then we'll get back to it. Well,
(21:00):
so what's left to say about anger? All right? Well,
we were talking earlier about how sometimes we should take
different approaches to our anger, Like, sometimes it can be
beneficial to kind of embrace your anger. Other times it's
in your best interest to, you know, get it in
check as soon as you can. So, just to keep
those good vibes rolling from our tickling segment, why don't
we go back and forth with a few of the
most unusual solutions we came across for dealing with anger. Sure,
(21:23):
but how about we start at the beginning with some
of the very first anger management advice on record. And
it's actually pretty good advice because, according to the Greek
philosopher Plutarch, your best bet for preventing an angry outburst
is simply to run away and hide, well, like into
a cave or something. What do you mean by this, Yeah,
Plutark's cave, which is I guess a lesser known Greek.
(21:43):
I can't say I've heard of Plutark's. I think you
meant more like, if you can't calm down, you should
remove yourself from the situation, which is pretty sage advice, right, Like,
it's not far off of the techniques you always hear
about today, like taking a walk to come yourself down,
or taking a break from stressors that are known to
have set you. But the really interesting part to me
is why Plutarch things stepping away like that's necessary. He
(22:05):
claimed that when people are angry, we're most likely to
lash out at those were closest to our loved ones.
I still can't believe you made a Plutarch's cave joke, Like,
does it get any nerdier than making kind of a
reference to Pluto's cave. But anyway, I mean that that
actually does hold up pretty well. So you know, you
lead with that whole run and hide thing, And I
kind of thought this was going to be some outdated
(22:26):
wisdom from the ancients, but but I guess not. It does.
It does seem to hold up well. Don't worry, because
I've got plenty of outdated wisdom as well. So did
you know that the Roman stoic Seneca was one of
the first to spread the idea that redheads have fiery tempers,
and he wrote, the only reason why red haired and
reddy people are extremely hot tempered is that they have,
by nature the color which others are wont to assume
(22:47):
in anger for their blood is active and restless. So
they're hot tempered because their blood is restless, and that
somehow makes their hair red. Is that right? I guess so.
I mean here's the funny part it though. Like as
off base as his thoughts on redhead's work, his advice
for how to minimize the fallout from a redheaded temper
tantrum was actually pretty solid. So he recommended people avoid drinking.
(23:11):
He also wanted them to exercise more and take time
to play games or just relax, which you know really
are effective ways to manage anger. Yeah that's pretty interesting,
all right. Well, you know, while exercise might reduce angry feelings,
you know, doing the exact opposite can actually help you
deal with anger too. There's this research I was reading
about from Texas A and M that was showing people
(23:31):
handle anger better when they're lying down than when they're
standing or or or just sitting upright. So explains to me,
like they got a bunch of people to lie down
in the lab and then they just started getting them
mad on purpose. I mean, this is science. Mangoh, this
is exactly the kind of thing that you do. I
mean it was a little bit more nuanced than that,
you know, because the researchers actually concocted this whole scheme,
and they didn't tell the volunteers that they were participating
(23:54):
in an anger study. Instead, they had the student's right
brief essays about controversial topics and and told them that
someone in the other room was going to critique their work.
So at this point, the volunteers were all hooked up
to these e G machines and they got to listen
to the feedback, and some of them were sitting up,
others were lying down, And of course all of this
was part of the plan, and there wasn't really a
(24:16):
person in the other room giving specific feedback for each volunteer. Instead,
each person heard one of several different recordings of a
research team member just belittling their intelligence, their logic, even
the likability of the essays to all these different degrees.
That's awful, it is, but it's also pretty awesome at
the same time, Like I've had them this but there
(24:36):
was a confusion. It's such an awful awesomeness. But the
results were pretty interesting to just listen to this description
of the outcome. This comes from a report and New
Scientist quote. Volunteers who heard these insults while on their
backs felt just as angry as volunteers who were seated,
But e e G. Recordings showed that for the upright volunteers,
(24:56):
a brain region called the left prefrontal cortex was more
active than its counterpart in the brain's right hemisphere. Other
research has linked this lopsided activation to anger and the
desire to engage that anger. While volunteers who received their
digs while lying down, however, exhibited e G patterns no
different from the subjects who got slightly positive reviews. You know,
(25:17):
so both groups felt just as angry, but it was
easier for the people lying down to move past that anger,
while the people who were upright they tended to just
dwell on it. So did the researchers say anything about
why that might be? Well, they weren't completely sure, but
there was one suggestion that you know, related to the
fact that people are more likely to attack when they're
(25:37):
in an upright stance, while people in a reclining position
are more prone to just reflect on things. That's interesting,
And it actually reminds me of this study I read
about where the psychologists found that taking a quick nap
can help you work through your anger. So the way
it worked was researchers took forty volunteers and they had
them work on these unsolvable computer puzzles that were made
(25:58):
to be intentionally frustrating, and then they had some of
the participants take a one hour nap while the others
stayed awake and watched the Nature documentary instead, And once
the hour was up, both groups returned to the maddening puzzles,
and as you might have guessed, the nappers were more
likely to keep trying to solve them, while the non
nappers were more likely to give up completely. The nappers
also reported feeling less impulsive, which suggests they were able
(26:20):
to better manage their frustration after getting a little shut at.
I mean, it really makes a lot of sense, and
I feel like we can use this as as evidence
or an endorsement for adding that formal nap room to
the office. And I know that's something we've been pushing
for for a while. I know, I'm so sick of
curling up in that supply closet, and I think everyone
else is pretty sick of you curling up in the
supply closet. It's just such a passive way to relieve
(26:43):
that anger. And I know there's some that need to
kind of blow off steam a little bit more, and
so for that, you might be better off going to
an anger room. Now before you invest in your own,
you can actually visit the official one in Dallas, Texas
with I've heard people joke about this, but this is
a real thing, Like it's an actual business. Yeah, it's
a legit establishment. It's in Texas, like I mentioned, and
(27:04):
you can go and you can book these therapeutic sessions
and while you're there you get to smash up all
kinds of old electronics and office furniture. I don't know
why office furniture, like the electronics thing makes sense, but anyway,
So if you're wondering how it works, the first step
is to choose how long of a session you want.
So there's a five minute what's called an I need
a break session and that's twenty five dollars. Then there's
(27:26):
a fifteen minute lash out session that costs forty five
dollars and a twenty five minute total demolition booking that
actually will set you back seventy five dollars and a
lot of money. It is. I do have to admit though, like,
even if I wasn't angry, I think five minutes to
go in for twenty five bucks and just be able
to smash a bunch of stuff that I have to
(27:48):
admit like that's a little bit tempting to me. And
so anyway, what you do is you settle on the time.
You simply pick your ideal soundtrack to Rage two. You
get to pick music, and then you just go get
a bit spall that that sounds completely nuts to me,
And I can definitely think of healthier ways to vent
your frustration, for instance, like have you heard about all
(28:08):
this research that shows tickling rats and do wonders for
your stress levels? Oh gosh, I feel like we talked
about rats and tickling enough on the show, and I
think that might be wishful thinking on your part. But
I do know what you mean about finding better avenues
for releasing anger, you know, more so than outright violence,
and even if that violence happens to be in a
controlled space, and you know it's mostly directed at old
(28:29):
TV sets and office furniture, I guess well, it makes
me think of this Mr. Rogers quote I came across
while researching, and you know, since we're both Slash Rogers fans,
I thought i'd go ahead and read it. So quote,
confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength,
not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and
sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger
(28:52):
maype ring, and to channel them into non violent outlets.
It takes strength to face their sadness and to grieve,
and to let our grief and our anger flow into
years when they need to. It takes strength to talk
about our feelings and to reach out for help and
comfort when we need it. That's so well put as
as always Yeah, well, actually there's a little bit more
to the quote. And if all else fails, tickle some rats, right,
(29:14):
thank you might just be making some stuff up here, man,
go And I also think we better move on to
the fact off before we start ticking off anymore, Mr
Rogers fans, Let's do it m all right, here's a
weird fact. Studies have shown that we're actually more optimistic
(29:35):
when we're angry. And I know that sounds completely contradictory,
but this is because anger makes us feel like we're
more in control. So there was one study where researchers
were trying to get people in two very different moods.
Some they wanted to be angry, some they wanted to
be fearful. And so then they asked a series of
questions that were mostly focused on, you know, their achievement
of certain goals. And so the angry set, we're focused
(29:58):
and determined to do well, but the fearful set, we're
too thrown off by the possibility of failure. That's fascinating.
So I know you and I have had a few
co workers over the years who just really wore out
their computer keyboards when they were angry about something. Just
anger typing. Yeah, I have a few in minds. Well,
it turns out there's a program developed by researchers at
the Islamic University of Technology in Bangladesh that's surprisingly accurate
(30:21):
in determining how someone is feeling when they type, So
those being tested were asked to simply type phrases that
popped up on their monitor, and mostly these were phrases
from Alice in Wonderland or other books. And in evaluating
things like the speed and also the rhythm of how
the participants typed, the program predicted with eighty seven percent
accuracy when someone was feeling joyful and with accuracy when
(30:43):
someone was angry. Isn't that amazing just from how they type? Yeah,
that is pretty cool. Well, I feel like over the
past decade, the use of the word hangry has just skyrocket,
and it is a good word, but it's interesting to watch.
Is even typically easy going people get angry when they're hungry.
And we've talked a little bit about this before, but
it's really this survival mechanism that's at play. So if
(31:04):
you think about it, when we're hungry, our bodies are
programmed to tell us go get food, and what better
way to get food than to be angry and determined
to eat. Well, there's a Texas A and M dietitian
Brenda Bustillos, and she explains it a bit more about
what's happening here. You know, what our brains telling us
that we're low on glucose. So she says, quote, the
amount of glucose available for the brain declines as more
(31:25):
time passes between meals. Food is important because when glucose
levels become too low, our brain triggers the release of
stress hormones and it's that release that makes it much
more difficult to manage our tempers. Well, let's talk about
a different species, and it's interesting to learn that male
songbirds in New Zealand have actually been found to get
more angry when other males come into their territory and
(31:47):
sing these more complicated and possibly more beautiful songs. So
perhaps is a jealousy thing or just a threat. But
during a test, when a new bird started singing these
longer songs with more syllables, the songbirds would approach were
quickly and fly closer to intimidate the perceived threat. I
feel like we should do an entire episode on the
jealous song birds of New Zealand. That's pretty great, all right, Well,
(32:11):
you know I don't love the sound of people chewing
or breathing loudly. But and there's actually a name for this,
It's called miss aphonia, and scientists at Newcastle University in
the UK have done some studies on this. So apparently
they took twenty people with severe miss aphonia and they
compare them to a group without it. So first they
had them listened to common noises that really shouldn't elicit
(32:32):
any real reaction, like maybe the sound of rain or
something like that. And then they had them listen to
unsettling noises like babies crying. And then finally they had
them listened to these triggers like breathing loudly or the
sound of chewing. And while both groups reacted the same
to most of the noises, you know, like they were
unaffected by the pleasant noises, and both groups were kind
(32:54):
of thrown off by the babies crying. The chewing made
the missophonic group's heart rate skyrocket, like along with these
other fight or flight responses from the body. It just
had this very physical effect on them. And that's really interesting.
So I'm definitely gonna even softer when I'm around you
from now on. Thank you. That was all. That was
all just a hint. I wanted to make sure you knew.
(33:14):
So I found this pretty great one. In two thous
these artists from Scandinavia created an anger release machine. And
it was basically a vending machine, or you could call
it a venting machine, and basically was stocked with crystal
plates and porcelain vases, and you insert a few coins
and pick your item and then it would slowly get
pushed off the edge and shadow hopefully you'd feel better
(33:37):
by the end of it. That is the dumbest thing
I've ever heard of, but it's also pretty great that
that existed. So it makes me a little angry to
say this, but I'm going to have to let you
take home today's fact Off trophy. Thank you so much,
and thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten
some pretty awesome facts about the science of anger, so
we'd love to hear about those from you. You can
(33:58):
email us part time Genius and How stuff Works dot com.
You can also call us on our seven fact hotline
that's one eight four four pt Genius, or of course
hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much
for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is
(34:25):
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without several brilliant people who do the important things. We
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Gay Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
(34:46):
and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we
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you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review for us.
Do we do? We forget Jason? Jason who diddy be
Guess what will what's that mango? So this is a
weird thing I remember from high school. But I was
up late one night and I was watching a PBS interview,
you know, the way all the cool kids did when
we were in high school when they're up late, of course,
of course, but the guest was actually Rudy Giuliani, who
at the time was famously cleaning up New York, and
the interview asked him, how are you so effective? And
(00:23):
he said, well, I just get annoyed by something, then
I get really angry. Like the way he talked about
it was almost like he hulked out on the topic.
And then he said, I used that anger to work
like crazy. All right, So you know, I know there
are a lot of economic theories about why New York
got so much safer in the nineties, but the violence,
they're definitely dropped during his term, Like there's no denying that. Yeah.
(00:44):
People used to refer to it like a Disneyland then.
Or around the same time I saw the interview, I
read this thing about Bill Clinton and apparently he'd get
insanely angry every morning, like every morning he just unleashed
on his top staffers and they called it an SMO
or a standard morning out, and apparently his anger would disappear.
You know, they said it burned clean. But as a kid,
(01:05):
the whole thing made me wonder, if I want to
be a more effective leader, do I need to be
more angry? Because I'm not generally someone who gets that angry,
or at least I wasn't until I had kids. But
that's what today's show is all about, the science of anger.
And we've also thrown in a little signs of tickling
to lighten things up. Let's dive in aither podcast listeners,
(01:45):
Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always,
I'm joined by my good friend Mangu show ticketer on
the other side of the soundproof glass sporting this blood
red face pain, I mean blood red, and the angriest
expression I have ever seen. That's our friend and producer
Tristan mc So. Do we know why Tristan looks so
medacine today because we're like a minute into this and
I'm already super uncomfortable. Oh, I'm with you on this, Mago.
(02:07):
I don't know. I think it's a new thing he
wanted to try. Apparently he'd read about this. You know,
this constant visual reminder of anger is supposed to help
us stay on topic. But I really I don't think
we're gonna have any trouble staying on track today because
today we're talking about all the fascinating science behind anger.
So we're gonna look at both the psychological and the
physiological effects is as well as the common triggers that
(02:29):
prompted in the first place. And along the way, we're
gonna explore a few potential ways to keep those angry
feelings in check, you know, the next time somebody cuts
you off in traffic or just does whatever to make
you angry. All right, mago, So so where do you
want to start? Well, since Triston literally has us being
read this morning, let's start with the idea of the
angry face. So you know this one. It's when someone
(02:51):
like lowers their eyebrows. They've got tight lips, flared nostrils,
all the telltale signs of someone's feeling mad. We're familiar
with it because anger is something we've all witnessed and
felt firsthand. But the crazy thing is, it's not just
the feeling that's universal, it's the expression itself. Social scientists
have actually found that the specific muscle contractions that cause
our angry face are recognized across cultures, and in fact,
(03:14):
even children who have been blind since birth make the
face when they're feeling angry, and that's without ever having
seen the expression themselves. I find stuff like that just
so fascinating. So so this isn't a learned behavior then,
So does that mean that an angry face is just
like part of our biology or something. Yeah, so many
researchers think the specific representation of anger is an involved
(03:35):
trait that most humans share. So the question then becomes why, Like,
what's the advantage of this universal angry face? So do
they have like do they have an answer for this? Well,
I mean we do have a few good guesses. For
for example, most psychologists see anger as a way to
signal that you feel wronged or that you're unhappy about it.
But researchers that you see Santa Barbara and like Griffith
(03:55):
University in Australia have actually gone a step further and
according to them, anger evolved to serve as kind of
a bargaining tool during times of conflict, and, as one
professor of psychology put it, the greater the harm and
individual can inflict the more bargaining power he or she wields,
And researchers actually called this bargaining through menace. It's a
specific term. And the idea is that anger is a
(04:17):
way to let others know that something is unacceptable to
you and that there's going to be conflict until the
offending party acts to make the situation better. All right,
So we've kind of evolved this shared facial expression to
help deliver that message to each other. And that that
all makes sense. But why this specific expression, like why
the lowered brows or the flared nostrils. So I looked
into this a little as well, and all the features
(04:39):
that make up the angry face are natural signs of
aggression in their own right. I mean, it's something we
see in the animal kingdom as well. Right, Like one
researcher said, quote, you can think of the anger face
as a constellation of features, each of which makes you
appear physically more formidable. Well that's interesting, though, I do
have to say, like it's a little unsettling to think
that anytime my kids they're making an angry face, they're
(05:01):
they're actually kind of threatening physical violence. Well of my kids,
it certainly helps their bargaining stance. But one of the
lead researchers that u CSP John Toby, has actually suggested
something much more strange. He thinks that angry faces among
friends and family might be a little different. In this case,
they're more of a way to emotionally manipulate loved ones
into cooperating in the long term. So, for example, if
(05:23):
a friend blows off your plans to hang out and
instead goes to see a movie, you're likely to feel
angry because they slighted you and showed less respect than
you expected. Al Right, So in this case, showing anger
is like a way to guilt trip your friends into
treating you with a little more thoughtfulness or consideration or
something exactly, and to be used as the example of
each person having a mental cooperation control doll. So the
(05:46):
anger you express is both an implicit threat to turn
down your own dial and and not so friendly push
for them to turn theirs up and treat you better. Okay, So,
so my kids aren't exactly physically threatening me. There's there's
just emotionally manipulating me. I feel so much better about this, Magno. Right,
So we we've talked about what happens on the surface
when we feel angry. So now let's look at what's
(06:07):
actually going on inside our bodies. And it's really comes
down to the amygdala, which is the part of the
brain that deals with the emotional responses to, you know,
to outside stimuli. Now, the amygdala processes whatever anger triggering
a venture experiencing, and then responds and as little as
a quarter of a second. And so what it does
is orders the release of special neurotransmitters that you know,
(06:29):
kind of ready you to take physical action. So now
you've got all kinds of chemicals surging through your body.
You've got adrenaline and noor adrenaline and epinephrin nor epinephrin,
and and these quickly drive up your blood pressure and
your heart rate. And so this is why people turn
red into face when they're upset, right, Like all that
blood is rushing to their extremities. Yeah, that's right. And
(06:51):
you know, thankfully that increased blood flow also heads to
the prefrontal cortex, and and that's the part of the
brain that's most associated with reason and judgment. Now, I deally,
the responses in the amygdala and the frontal lobe, they
kind of balanced each other out, and then we're able
to regain our composure instead of just you know, punching
somebody in the face or breaking a window or whatever
that extreme response might be. So thank God for the
(07:13):
frontal lobe is basically what you're saying, pretty much. And
you know, in fact, one quick example that shows just
how much we owe to our frontal lobes is is
that famous story of Phineas Gauge. So he was the
railroad worker in the eighteen forties and he suffered this
terrible accident where an iron rod shot through his cheek
and and out the top of his head. Now, amazingly,
(07:34):
Gauge survived the incident, but you know, his prefrontal cortex
wasn't nearly as lucky, and so from then on he
developed this reputation for being quote fitful, irreverent, and obstinate,
and for having quote the animal passions of a strong man. So,
in other words, without a functioning frontal lobe to inhibit
his anger, Gauge was no longer capable of self control.
(07:56):
And this was such a departure from who he had
been before the accident, and his friends actually considered him
a completely different person. They even started referring to him
as no longer gauge. So you and I have discussed
gauged so many times over the years, and it's weird
how it's still creepy to me. Okay, so we've covered
the surface expression of anger and what's going on behind
(08:16):
the scenes, But what about the external factors that make
us angry in the first place, Like, is there any
consensus on what sets people off? Well? There is, actually,
I mean, it turns out the triggers for our anger
are pretty much as universal as our expressions of that anger,
which is a shame because I like to think of
myself as special and totally individual and unique, but instead
my anger is just so basic. But uh, well, what
(08:39):
are these universal triggers? Don't worry, mengo, You're still pretty unique.
It's just that that's your anger. Triggers are not unique.
But but you know, any of these incidents that you
can think of that make people angry, including the ones
we've mentioned, like being cut off in traffic or you know,
feeling slighted by a friend or whatever it may be,
these can all be sorted into these broader types. So
(08:59):
there's neuroscientists at the University of Maryland. His name is R.
Douglas Fields, and he's identified the triggers and narrowed them
into nine categories that cover all these potential situations. And
I can feel your little skeptical on this, So I'm
just gonna throw a mnemonic device at you, Mango. I know,
we love nemonics, and that's how you keep track of these.
And the mnemonic is life morts. Have you ever heard
(09:21):
of life? Yeah, So here's what it stands for. So
each letter is something different. So the L is life
and that's basically like defending yourself against attackers that we've
got insult, which makes sense. You've got family or you know,
protecting loved ones, environment, protecting your territory. You've got mate order,
which you know is kind of responding to social injustice,
(09:43):
resources tribe and stopped as the last one, or that's
like escaping restraint or imprisonment. So so life morts is
as simple as that, Mango. So I mean, that does
cover all the bases. But I've got to admit, like
the acronym lifeboard just makes me ang Like why make
an acronym that's hard to remember? Like it would be
(10:04):
so much better if it's like Tom's rifle right, which
actually makes sense, or of like fimber Lows, like when
you get angry after fimber Lows, but I like Tom's rifle.
Did you come up without yourself? Well, I looked it
up in an acronym finder. That's that's that's pretty good.
But back to life more, it's it's easy to imagine
how anger could be completely justified in in like every
(10:27):
one of these situations, like the urge to protect your
family or push back against social injustice. Like, there's not
just relatable feelings, they're also respectable ones, at least in
most cases. Yeah, definitely. I mean, we tend to think
of anger as a primarily negative emotion or a destructive
influence that needs to be curbed or controlled, but it
is worth remembering that there can be specific situations where
(10:50):
it's actually beneficial to react with anger. For example, social
psychologist site anger is one of the most powerful motivating
forces we have. So just think about a time where
you were angry when things weren't going your way or
you felt like everybody was out to get you. You know,
sometimes that desire to turn things around or prove the
world wrong actually can really motivate you, which is a
(11:10):
good point. And it's funny, like anger motivates me when
I'm playing sports. If someone fouls me or tells me
I can't do something, I just concentrate so much harder
and feel like I have a point to prove. But
it throws me off my game when I'm trying to
do something creative, Like I almost can't think when I'm angry.
But I've read that for some people, anger can actually
give you a temporary boost and creativity, Like you know
(11:30):
that burst of energy you describe when people experience anger. Well,
one side effect of that is a more flexible, freewheeling
thought process, and studies have actually shown that people who
feel angry tend to take a less systematic approach to
problem solving and are actually able to see a big
picture of you more easily. It is a little bit surprising,
and I think it comes down to being able to
recognize when it's appropriate to feel angry and and when
(11:53):
maybe it's in your best interest to calm down. And
that's really the whole point behind life marts. I just
wanted to say life sports again, but I mean, you know,
the hope is that by learning to identify these triggers.
We we then kind of gain a better understanding of
of where our anger is coming from, and you know
whether it's something that should be channeled or suppressed. And
and that's actually not a new idea. I actually came
(12:15):
across this Aristotle quote while we were doing our research,
and it sums up this idea of using anger in
a beneficial way. So here's what he says. Anybody can
become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with
the right person, and to the right degree, and at
the right time, and for the right purpose and in
the right way, that is not within everybody's power. That
is not easy. Well, I mean that sounds like good advice.
(12:37):
And I know there's more to say about how to
turn your anger to your advantage, as well as how
to shut it down when it's not doing you any favors.
But before we get into that, I thought would be
fun to take a little break from anger and lending
the mood a little. I don't know, Mango, you might
be proving Tristan right. I think we're going off on
these tangents. He might start painting his face against. But
I promised we'd go in the opposite direction. Of anger,
(12:58):
just for a few minutes to talk about the science tickling.
But first a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
Genius and we're talking about the science of anger, or
(13:18):
at least we were talking about the science of anger.
Now apparently we're talking about tickling. So so what's the
story here, Mega, Well, this week I was asking myself
all these questions ahead of today's show, like how does
the body respond to anger? What causes us to get angry?
And for whatever reason, it just reminds me of a
topic we tackled a few years back at Mental Flass,
which was this question of why do we laugh when
we're tickled? And the more I thought about it, the
(13:40):
more I realized the two reactions are really two sides
of the same coin. All right, well that's interesting, so
refresh my memory, Like why do we laugh when we
get tickled? I mean, it has something to do with
our nerve endings in our skin, right, that's right. So
when the nerve endings in our epidermists are lightly stimulated
by touch, they send a signal to the brain's nervous system.
And there are actually two different of the brain that
(14:00):
processed the signal. The first is the somatosensory cortex, which
analyzes all the physical qualities of the touch, such as
the amount of pressure it exerts. And the second reason
is the anterior singulated cortex, and this is the region
in charge of pleasurable feelings. All right, So the tickling
sensation we feel as a result of the combined analysis
from those two regions of the brain. And and I
(14:22):
see the connection between the outside stimulus and the brain's response.
But besides that, like, what's the connection between anger and
tickling here? Well, there's a study out of Germany where
they used mri I scanners to see which parts of
the brain light up when someone laughs, and while laughing
at a joke activated many of the same areas of
the brain is laughing while being tickled. The tickling laughter
(14:43):
also activated the hypothalamus, and that's the part of the
brain that controls our fight or flight response when we
feel threatened, and well, anger pushes that response in the
direction of conflict. Tickling actually does the opposite, all right.
So you're saying, like, we laugh when we're tickled because
because what like because we're giving up or something. Yeah,
So that's actually one theory that laughter is meant to
(15:03):
signal submission to whoever is doing the tickling, and I
guess it's in the hopes that they'll show mercy and
break off. I. I I mean, when when I'm tickling my kids,
that's the last thing I want to do. Stop tickling them. So,
but why would our bodies treat tickling as a threat
in the first place, Well, it helps to know that
there are actually two different kinds of tickles. So one
is the kind that results in laughter whenever sensitive areas
(15:25):
like our armpits or bellies are tickled, and the other
is brought by extremely light touches and tends to produce
an itching sensation rather than laughter. So the second kind
is the one that you feel when a cat's tail
brushes your skin or I guess want to bug crawls
across your arm. And that's led some scientists to conclude
that this kind of tickling is an early warning system
to help us defend against potentially dangerous pests like spiders
(15:48):
or mosquitoes. So it could be something similar with the
other kind of tickling. When when someone unexpectedly touches you
in in a vulnerable part of your body, the tickling
kicks in and we can just react as fast as possible,
which makes a lot of sense. Like you tense up
so much when this kind of thing happens, and you know,
instinctively try to shield like whichever part of you is
being tickled in that moment exactly. And this is also
(16:09):
why it's pretty much impossible to tickle yourself. So no
matter how discreet you try to be, your own touch
is never truly unexpected in the way someone else's can be.
And that's because the cerebellum can predict sensations that arise
from your own movements, but not from other people's. So basically,
when the cerebellum knows what's about to happen, that prediction
overrides the response in your brain that would otherwise lead
(16:30):
to the tickle. All right, well that's fair enough, but
but I notice you said pretty much impossible to tickle yourself.
So there are there exceptions to this. Yeah, I was
surprised to learn this, but there are a couple of
cases where self tickling is possible, but neither is very
easy to test for yourself. So the first is if
you're schizophrenic. For whatever reason. The minds of people with
schizophrenia aren't really great at predicting the sensory outcomes of
(16:51):
their own movements, and the second case is admittedly kind
of cheating. But according to this neuro scientist, David Eagleman,
he claims, if you build a machine that allows you
to move a feather, but the feather moves only after
a delay, like of a second, then you can actually
tickle yourself because the results of your own actions now
surprise you. I don't know, Mago, I can't say for sure,
(17:12):
but I'm probably not going to go to the effort
of building a feather tickling machine. But but we'll see.
But I mean, it does make me curious. So, like,
if you can see that someone else is about to
tickle you, like you're you're watching their hand, Like, why
does it still tickle when they touch you? So my
guess would be that it's because your brain can't predict
exactly where they're going to touch you or with what
(17:32):
force or rhythm. But there is a way to suppress
the ticklers feeling you get from someone else, and it's
only really by taking advantage of the same system that
prevents you from tickling yourself. So all right, what do
you mean by that? So you know you can't tickle
yourself because your brain knows what you're about to do.
But if you place your hand on top of the
hand of some person trying to tickle you, then you
(17:53):
can basically trick your brain into thinking it knows where
the touch is coming from, which cancels out the tickling sensation.
Isn't that Yeah, this whole thing just makes me feel
so weird, Like like, I don't like somebody tickling me.
I don't like the idea of somebody tickling me. I
don't like the idea of putting my hand on top
of somebody else's hand. Is tickling a bit, but I
feel like something doesn't add up, Like if the feeling
of being tickled is a reflex, like this biological reaction
(18:17):
to this stimulus, then we should be able to tickle
ourselves like and the hand holding trick you mentioned shouldn't
be able to stifle that reflex. Well, that's another thing
tickling has in common with anger. Well, there's a biological
component to both. They're also largely dependent on social cues
and context. So, for example, if you remember that thing
we were talking about earlier about getting angry at a
(18:38):
friend who bailed on plans and went to see a
movie instead. Well, just imagine if you cancel the plans
because his wife went into labor. The and result is
still the same for you, right, Like you don't get
to hang out with your friend, but your emotional response
to each of those scenarios would likely be totally different,
and because of that context, your natural inclination towards anger
is actually subdued. All right, So you're saying the same
(19:00):
thing happens when with tickling. Yeah, it's it's true. So
think about Chinese tickle torture, or better yet, Roman tickle torture.
So ancient Romans would do this thing where they tie
down a criminal, soak their feet in salt solution, and
then bring in a herd of goats to lick it off,
and they just repeat this process over and over. But
the people being tickled weren't laughing. They were screaming or
(19:22):
crying because it was torturous to be in that position.
Yeah that sounds awful and like the worst form of
torture possible. But I'm curious, like, is there any social
benefit to tickling or is it all just this psychological torture. Well,
there is an upside thankfully. And on the positive end
of the spectrum, tickling can be a bonding exercise. It's
one of the earliest forms of communication between mothers and babies.
(19:43):
Like you see a mother tickle, which makes the baby laugh,
which makes the mother tickle more, which makes the baby
laugh more, and on and on, and it's kind of
a primal conversation. And it's not just humans who do this,
like chimps, gorillas, orangutans and rats also tickled to the
point of laughter as a way of bonding. And as
you probably noticed, rats are definitely the odd men out
in that group. Yeah, and I know we've talked about
(20:05):
this fact before, like that rats laugh when they're tickled,
but I actually didn't know that was helping them, you know,
bond in some way. It does, and and probably my
favorite example of that comes from this researcher named Jock
panks Up. He discovered that tickled rats purposely seek out
the hands of the specific human lab workers who had
tickled them previously, like they remembered who made them laugh
(20:26):
and they come back from war. Is that crazy? It
is crazy. I have to say I'm not ready to
talk about tickling anymore, but I am glad that we
went on that tangent so so nice job on that one.
But now that we're feeling happy and refreshed, I feel
like we need to talk a little bit more about anger. Uh,
this show is such an emotional roller coaster, But let's
take a quick break and then we'll get back to it. Well,
(21:00):
so what's left to say about anger? All right? Well,
we were talking earlier about how sometimes we should take
different approaches to our anger, Like, sometimes it can be
beneficial to kind of embrace your anger. Other times it's
in your best interest to, you know, get it in
check as soon as you can. So, just to keep
those good vibes rolling from our tickling segment, why don't
we go back and forth with a few of the
most unusual solutions we came across for dealing with anger. Sure,
(21:23):
but how about we start at the beginning with some
of the very first anger management advice on record. And
it's actually pretty good advice because, according to the Greek
philosopher Plutarch, your best bet for preventing an angry outburst
is simply to run away and hide, well, like into
a cave or something. What do you mean by this, Yeah,
Plutark's cave, which is I guess a lesser known Greek.
(21:43):
I can't say I've heard of Plutark's. I think you
meant more like, if you can't calm down, you should
remove yourself from the situation, which is pretty sage advice, right, Like,
it's not far off of the techniques you always hear
about today, like taking a walk to come yourself down,
or taking a break from stressors that are known to
have set you. But the really interesting part to me
is why Plutarch things stepping away like that's necessary. He
(22:05):
claimed that when people are angry, we're most likely to
lash out at those were closest to our loved ones.
I still can't believe you made a Plutarch's cave joke, Like,
does it get any nerdier than making kind of a
reference to Pluto's cave. But anyway, I mean that that
actually does hold up pretty well. So you know, you
lead with that whole run and hide thing, And I
kind of thought this was going to be some outdated
(22:26):
wisdom from the ancients, but but I guess not. It does.
It does seem to hold up well. Don't worry, because
I've got plenty of outdated wisdom as well. So did
you know that the Roman stoic Seneca was one of
the first to spread the idea that redheads have fiery tempers,
and he wrote, the only reason why red haired and
reddy people are extremely hot tempered is that they have,
by nature the color which others are wont to assume
(22:47):
in anger for their blood is active and restless. So
they're hot tempered because their blood is restless, and that
somehow makes their hair red. Is that right? I guess so.
I mean here's the funny part it though. Like as
off base as his thoughts on redhead's work, his advice
for how to minimize the fallout from a redheaded temper
tantrum was actually pretty solid. So he recommended people avoid drinking.
(23:11):
He also wanted them to exercise more and take time
to play games or just relax, which you know really
are effective ways to manage anger. Yeah that's pretty interesting,
all right. Well, you know, while exercise might reduce angry feelings,
you know, doing the exact opposite can actually help you
deal with anger too. There's this research I was reading
about from Texas A and M that was showing people
(23:31):
handle anger better when they're lying down than when they're
standing or or or just sitting upright. So explains to me,
like they got a bunch of people to lie down
in the lab and then they just started getting them
mad on purpose. I mean, this is science. Mangoh, this
is exactly the kind of thing that you do. I
mean it was a little bit more nuanced than that,
you know, because the researchers actually concocted this whole scheme,
and they didn't tell the volunteers that they were participating
(23:54):
in an anger study. Instead, they had the student's right
brief essays about controversial topics and and told them that
someone in the other room was going to critique their work.
So at this point, the volunteers were all hooked up
to these e G machines and they got to listen
to the feedback, and some of them were sitting up,
others were lying down, And of course all of this
was part of the plan, and there wasn't really a
(24:16):
person in the other room giving specific feedback for each volunteer. Instead,
each person heard one of several different recordings of a
research team member just belittling their intelligence, their logic, even
the likability of the essays to all these different degrees.
That's awful, it is, but it's also pretty awesome at
the same time, Like I've had them this but there
(24:36):
was a confusion. It's such an awful awesomeness. But the
results were pretty interesting to just listen to this description
of the outcome. This comes from a report and New
Scientist quote. Volunteers who heard these insults while on their
backs felt just as angry as volunteers who were seated,
But e e G. Recordings showed that for the upright volunteers,
(24:56):
a brain region called the left prefrontal cortex was more
active than its counterpart in the brain's right hemisphere. Other
research has linked this lopsided activation to anger and the
desire to engage that anger. While volunteers who received their
digs while lying down, however, exhibited e G patterns no
different from the subjects who got slightly positive reviews. You know,
(25:17):
so both groups felt just as angry, but it was
easier for the people lying down to move past that anger,
while the people who were upright they tended to just
dwell on it. So did the researchers say anything about
why that might be? Well, they weren't completely sure, but
there was one suggestion that you know, related to the
fact that people are more likely to attack when they're
(25:37):
in an upright stance, while people in a reclining position
are more prone to just reflect on things. That's interesting,
And it actually reminds me of this study I read
about where the psychologists found that taking a quick nap
can help you work through your anger. So the way
it worked was researchers took forty volunteers and they had
them work on these unsolvable computer puzzles that were made
(25:58):
to be intentionally frustrating, and then they had some of
the participants take a one hour nap while the others
stayed awake and watched the Nature documentary instead, And once
the hour was up, both groups returned to the maddening puzzles,
and as you might have guessed, the nappers were more
likely to keep trying to solve them, while the non
nappers were more likely to give up completely. The nappers
also reported feeling less impulsive, which suggests they were able
(26:20):
to better manage their frustration after getting a little shut at.
I mean, it really makes a lot of sense, and
I feel like we can use this as as evidence
or an endorsement for adding that formal nap room to
the office. And I know that's something we've been pushing
for for a while. I know, I'm so sick of
curling up in that supply closet, and I think everyone
else is pretty sick of you curling up in the
supply closet. It's just such a passive way to relieve
(26:43):
that anger. And I know there's some that need to
kind of blow off steam a little bit more, and
so for that, you might be better off going to
an anger room. Now before you invest in your own,
you can actually visit the official one in Dallas, Texas
with I've heard people joke about this, but this is
a real thing, Like it's an actual business. Yeah, it's
a legit establishment. It's in Texas, like I mentioned, and
(27:04):
you can go and you can book these therapeutic sessions
and while you're there you get to smash up all
kinds of old electronics and office furniture. I don't know
why office furniture, like the electronics thing makes sense, but anyway,
So if you're wondering how it works, the first step
is to choose how long of a session you want.
So there's a five minute what's called an I need
a break session and that's twenty five dollars. Then there's
(27:26):
a fifteen minute lash out session that costs forty five
dollars and a twenty five minute total demolition booking that
actually will set you back seventy five dollars and a
lot of money. It is. I do have to admit though, like,
even if I wasn't angry, I think five minutes to
go in for twenty five bucks and just be able
to smash a bunch of stuff that I have to
(27:48):
admit like that's a little bit tempting to me. And
so anyway, what you do is you settle on the time.
You simply pick your ideal soundtrack to Rage two. You
get to pick music, and then you just go get
a bit spall that that sounds completely nuts to me,
And I can definitely think of healthier ways to vent
your frustration, for instance, like have you heard about all
(28:08):
this research that shows tickling rats and do wonders for
your stress levels? Oh gosh, I feel like we talked
about rats and tickling enough on the show, and I
think that might be wishful thinking on your part. But
I do know what you mean about finding better avenues
for releasing anger, you know, more so than outright violence,
and even if that violence happens to be in a
controlled space, and you know it's mostly directed at old
(28:29):
TV sets and office furniture, I guess well, it makes
me think of this Mr. Rogers quote I came across
while researching, and you know, since we're both Slash Rogers fans,
I thought i'd go ahead and read it. So quote,
confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength,
not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and
sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger
(28:52):
maype ring, and to channel them into non violent outlets.
It takes strength to face their sadness and to grieve,
and to let our grief and our anger flow into
years when they need to. It takes strength to talk
about our feelings and to reach out for help and
comfort when we need it. That's so well put as
as always Yeah, well, actually there's a little bit more
to the quote. And if all else fails, tickle some rats, right,
(29:14):
thank you might just be making some stuff up here, man,
go And I also think we better move on to
the fact off before we start ticking off anymore, Mr
Rogers fans, Let's do it m all right, here's a
weird fact. Studies have shown that we're actually more optimistic
(29:35):
when we're angry. And I know that sounds completely contradictory,
but this is because anger makes us feel like we're
more in control. So there was one study where researchers
were trying to get people in two very different moods.
Some they wanted to be angry, some they wanted to
be fearful. And so then they asked a series of
questions that were mostly focused on, you know, their achievement
of certain goals. And so the angry set, we're focused
(29:58):
and determined to do well, but the fearful set, we're
too thrown off by the possibility of failure. That's fascinating.
So I know you and I have had a few
co workers over the years who just really wore out
their computer keyboards when they were angry about something. Just
anger typing. Yeah, I have a few in minds. Well,
it turns out there's a program developed by researchers at
the Islamic University of Technology in Bangladesh that's surprisingly accurate
(30:21):
in determining how someone is feeling when they type, So
those being tested were asked to simply type phrases that
popped up on their monitor, and mostly these were phrases
from Alice in Wonderland or other books. And in evaluating
things like the speed and also the rhythm of how
the participants typed, the program predicted with eighty seven percent
accuracy when someone was feeling joyful and with accuracy when
(30:43):
someone was angry. Isn't that amazing just from how they type? Yeah,
that is pretty cool. Well, I feel like over the
past decade, the use of the word hangry has just skyrocket,
and it is a good word, but it's interesting to watch.
Is even typically easy going people get angry when they're hungry.
And we've talked a little bit about this before, but
it's really this survival mechanism that's at play. So if
(31:04):
you think about it, when we're hungry, our bodies are
programmed to tell us go get food, and what better
way to get food than to be angry and determined
to eat. Well, there's a Texas A and M dietitian
Brenda Bustillos, and she explains it a bit more about
what's happening here. You know, what our brains telling us
that we're low on glucose. So she says, quote, the
amount of glucose available for the brain declines as more
(31:25):
time passes between meals. Food is important because when glucose
levels become too low, our brain triggers the release of
stress hormones and it's that release that makes it much
more difficult to manage our tempers. Well, let's talk about
a different species, and it's interesting to learn that male
songbirds in New Zealand have actually been found to get
more angry when other males come into their territory and
(31:47):
sing these more complicated and possibly more beautiful songs. So
perhaps is a jealousy thing or just a threat. But
during a test, when a new bird started singing these
longer songs with more syllables, the songbirds would approach were
quickly and fly closer to intimidate the perceived threat. I
feel like we should do an entire episode on the
jealous song birds of New Zealand. That's pretty great, all right, Well,
(32:11):
you know I don't love the sound of people chewing
or breathing loudly. But and there's actually a name for this,
It's called miss aphonia, and scientists at Newcastle University in
the UK have done some studies on this. So apparently
they took twenty people with severe miss aphonia and they
compare them to a group without it. So first they
had them listened to common noises that really shouldn't elicit
(32:32):
any real reaction, like maybe the sound of rain or
something like that. And then they had them listen to
unsettling noises like babies crying. And then finally they had
them listened to these triggers like breathing loudly or the
sound of chewing. And while both groups reacted the same
to most of the noises, you know, like they were
unaffected by the pleasant noises, and both groups were kind
(32:54):
of thrown off by the babies crying. The chewing made
the missophonic group's heart rate skyrocket, like along with these
other fight or flight responses from the body. It just
had this very physical effect on them. And that's really interesting.
So I'm definitely gonna even softer when I'm around you
from now on. Thank you. That was all. That was
all just a hint. I wanted to make sure you knew.
(33:14):
So I found this pretty great one. In two thous
these artists from Scandinavia created an anger release machine. And
it was basically a vending machine, or you could call
it a venting machine, and basically was stocked with crystal
plates and porcelain vases, and you insert a few coins
and pick your item and then it would slowly get
pushed off the edge and shadow hopefully you'd feel better
(33:37):
by the end of it. That is the dumbest thing
I've ever heard of, but it's also pretty great that
that existed. So it makes me a little angry to
say this, but I'm going to have to let you
take home today's fact Off trophy. Thank you so much,
and thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten
some pretty awesome facts about the science of anger, so
we'd love to hear about those from you. You can
(33:58):
email us part time Genius and How stuff Works dot com.
You can also call us on our seven fact hotline
that's one eight four four pt Genius, or of course
hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much
for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is
(34:25):
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without several brilliant people who do the important things. We
couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
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Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
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