Most damagingly, anger weakens a person's ability to think clearly and
keep control over his behaviour. The angry person loses objectivity in evaluating
the emotional significance of the person or situation that arouses his anger.
Not everyone experiences anger in the same way; what angers one person may amuse another.
The specific expression of anger also differs from person to person based on biological
and cultural forces. In contemporary culture, physical expressions of anger
are generally considered too socially harmful to be tolerated.
We no longer regard duels as an appropriate expression of anger resulting
from one person's awareness of insulting behaviour on the part of another.
Anger can be identified in the brain, where the electrical activity changes.
Under most conditions EEG measures of electrical activity show balanced activity
between the right and left prefrontal areas.
Behaviourally this corresponds to the general even-handed disposition that
most of us possess most of the time. But when we are angry the EEG
of the right and left prefrontal areas aren't balanced and. as a result of this,
we're likely to react. And our behavioural response to anger is different from
our response to other emotions, whether positive or negative.
Most positive emotions are associated with approach behaviour:
we move closer to people we like. Most negative emotions, in contrast,
are associated with avoidance behaviour: we move away from people and things
that we dislike or that make us anxious. But anger is an exception to this pattern.
The angrier we are the more likely we are to move towards the object of our anger.
This corresponds to what psychologists refer to as offensive anger:
the angry person moves closer in order to influence and
control the person or situation causing his anger.
This approach-and-confront behaviour is accompanied by a leftward prefrontal
asymmetry of EEG activity. Interestingly, this asymmetry lessens
if the angry person can experience empathy towards the individual
who is bringing forth the angry response. In defensive anger, in contrast,
the EEG asymmetry is directed to the right and the angry person
feels helpless in the face of the anger-inspiring situation.