Rage can prompt you to take a stand about something and make you incur personal costs by short circuiting reason. Anger, like other moral emotions, is something that makes a claim about the world. An angry spouse does more than show her displeasure at infidelity. She is also sending a signal about the kind of behaviour we think is appropriate in a society,. Her anger sends a message to other spousesobviously, this is not happening at a conscious level. This is why natural selection might conserve such behavior. We have these circuits because we need them. We don't call it snapping when the outcome is good, then we call it heroism or quick thinking.
Neuroscientist Doug Fields was on a trip to Europe when a pickpocket stole his wallet. Doug, normally mild-mannered, became enraged — and his fury turned him into a stranger to himself. This week, we revisit a favorite 2020 episode about the secret logic of irrational anger.
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