Anger Can Be Good for You

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In this week’s episode of "Who’d Have Thunk It?" we have recent research showing that your anger can be beneficial, but only in certain circumstances. We’re not talking about the big shouty, sweary, get-in-your-face kind of anger, however, but a different kind of beast altogether, one that is milder in both outlook and action, although not necessarily any less intense in feeling.

Our emotions are valid; they really are. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) says so. They’re useful, even. In the right contexts, that is. We need them; if we didn’t have them, we’d probably die, or suffer greatly, or be akin to those very logical aliens from a certain sci-fi franchise (and some would say that this would be no bad thing). So, emotions are necessary, and often beneficial.

Recent Research

This recent study on anger took a look at several other studies and concluded that it can be helpful. Not in knocking someone’s block off (bad anger) but in achieving a desired goal or outcome (good anger).¹

Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition, the study was called "Anger Has Benefits for Attaining Goals." And with it, researchers found that in a variety of other studies, anger helped in ways that a neutral condition did not (in your face, logic!).

One study found that anger helped people solve difficult puzzles, whilst another found that anger helped one to win prizes. Yet another study suggested that a big dollop of it helped people when playing video games. And other studies found that it decreased reaction time with goals that involved winning prizes. It also positively predicted efforts to go out and vote in contentious elections, and more.

In short, anger can get the job done. In certain circumstances, it can be functional. As an REBT therapist, I agree, with some caveats.

I would like to see how empowering anger is or is not when you’ve been stuck in yet another time-consuming telephone queue after you’ve been put through to the wrong department for the third time that call, or what it would do to a conversation with your boiler repairman who has decided to reschedule your repair at the last minute, leaving you with no heating or hot water in the middle of a big freeze. Would your anger be healthy then? It all depends.

Unhealthy Versus Healthy Negative Emotion

REBT makes a distinction between what it calls an unhealthy negative emotion and a healthy negative emotion. Very simply put, an unhealthy negative emotion is one that controls you, and, so, the way you think, feel, and act will not be constructive. A healthy negative emotion, however, is one that you are in control of, and, so, the way you think, feel, and act will be constructive. Either way, the emphasis is on the negative emotion: healthy or unhealthy, it simply acknowledges an adversity, or challenge, or difficult circumstance—a situation in which neutrality would not be entirely appropriate or, even, a bit weird. REBT therapists want you to emote, only they want you to emote constructively. Take anger.

According to REBT theory, this emotion is all about rule-breaking and how it affects our self-esteem. Someone has done something that you don’t think they should have done, or they have broken one of your own unwritten "life" rules.

With unhealthy anger, you totally believe the other person did it deliberately, think they’re being malicious, and assume the moral high ground (you’re right, they’re wrong). You might attack them physically (fisticuffs!) or verbally (arguments!); you might behave passive-aggressively, storm off, kick the cat, slam doors, seethe, sulk, and more.

With healthy anger (let’s call it annoyance), your personal rule has still been broken and your self-esteem is still taking a knock, but, this time, you don’t think they are doing it deliberately; you see context instead of malicious intent, you drop the moral absolutism, you can see the other point of view, and more. You might assert yourself, you might have a conversation (instead of an argument), you might just drop it because it’s not worth the bother, and so on.

The difference between the unhealthy negative emotion and the healthy negative emotion—the difference between anger and annoyance—is your beliefs, your thought patterns, and your attitudes. An REBT therapist would help you move from one version of the emotion to the other, by modifying those beliefs, thoughts, and attitudes; allowing you to empower yourself, solve puzzles, and achieve goals; and, basically, behave in a much more constructive fashion, even when your emotions are running high.

Anger Essential Reads

Mastering Irrational Anger—Yours and Others'

Do You or Your Child Confuse Hatred and Anger?

In other news, swearing can also be good for you—when used appropriately, that is—and science backs this up, too. Only that’s a whole other story that I wrote about before.²