Anger is not your enemy all the time, may help you solve problems faster

Can anger lead to better results when tackling tricky tasks? A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests so.

The experiment carried out by a team of researchers has revealed that anger can sometimes act as a powerful motivator. In some cases, angry people perform better on a set of challenging tasks than those who stay emotionally neutral.

“These findings demonstrate that anger increases effort toward attaining a desired goal, frequently resulting in greater success,” said Dr Heather Lench, the first author of the study.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

How was the study conducted?

To evaluate the responses, different groups of students were shown some images that triggered anger, desire, amusement, sadness or no particular emotion at all, respectively.

Then, they were given a challenging set of anagrams to solve.

Results

The experiment showed that those who were angry performed better than those who weren't. However, no significant difference was observed in performances related to easier challenges.

The researchers say there could be a link between anger and greater persistence or greater will to solve problems.

Another experiment showed those who were angry also performed better in video games. Those who felt amusement or desire performed at par with those sad or neutral.

Watch:Do mosquitos bite you more than others? Here's why!

“This pattern could indicate that general physical arousal had a benefit for game scores, as this would be greater in anger, amused, and desire conditions compared to the sad and neutral conditions,” the researchers write.

However, no such differences in performance were found when it came to an easier video game.

One experiment suggested being angry increased the degree to which participants cheated on tasks compared with the other emotions – except amusement – while another experiment found anger was associated with lower reaction times on a task.

“People often prefer to use positive emotions as tools more than negative and tend to see negative emotions as undesirable and maladaptive,” Lench said.

“Our research adds to the growing evidence that a mix of positive and negative emotions promotes well-being, and that using negative emotions as tools can be particularly effective in some situations,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)