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