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Surprising Science

Anger Increases Desire?

“Researchers find that associating an object with anger actually makes people want the object — a kind of motivation that’s normally associated with positive emotions.”
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“For a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers find that associating an object with anger actually makes people want the object — a kind of motivation that’s normally associated with positive emotions. People usually think of anger as a negative emotion. You’re not supposed to get angry. But anger also has some positive features…it can motivate people to go after something.” In a study, “People put more effort in action to obtain objects associated with angry faces. (They did not do this for items associated with fear.)”

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