What's the Science of Anger?

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. 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, 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, 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. 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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

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, 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.

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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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

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

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 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.

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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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

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 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, 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

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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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, 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, 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. 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 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

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

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.

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 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

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

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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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. 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

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 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 a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the important things. We couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI

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