Dear Cali Chica:

The following is my Wikipedia based preparation for our ROAR topic (I know you are a MD and the following science part is very basic and simplistic scientific information but I think it will do for what we need. Also added are and points and quotes from wiki’s entry on anger that I think may be jump-start points for discussion:

Our emotional experiences of Fear and Anger are very similar and involve the very same physiological processes made possible primarily by two chemicals that function as neurotransmitters (released by neurons in our brains)  and hormones (released by a gland into the blood): adrenaline, aka epinephrine and noradrenaline, aka norepinephrine. The two increase the blood output of the heart, blood flow to the muscles and blood sugar level, preparing the body for Flight or Fight. These chemicals increase the experiences of arousal, alertness, vigilance, restlessness, and great.. discomfort and distress.

We experience fear when we perceive “the threatening behavior of another outside force,” but we perceive anger when we perceive “deliberate harm or unfair treatment by others”. My thoughts here: we are  likely to feel way less anger when hail damages our car than when a person does, even if the hail damage is greater. We are likely to feel way less anger, if any, at a fellow driver who hits our car because of an unpreventable, unpredictable stroke, than at a driver who hits our car because the driver texts while driving.

We are likely to feel more anger for harm done to us by a person if the person intentionally aimed at harming us than for harm done to us by a person being inattentive, not  aiming at hurting us.

We feel anger following “perceived deliberate harm or unfair treatment by others” and the aim of anger is “correction of wrong behaviors, promoting social justice”, “To avoid conceived loss or fear that something will be taken away”.

“The angry person usually finds the cause of their anger in an intentional, personal, and controllable aspect of another person’s behavior”.

“The behaviors associated with anger are designed to warn aggressors to stop their threatening behavior.. anger is connected to the impulse of self preservation. It is shared by human and other animals. and it occurs when the animal is tormented or trapped”.

“At the beginning of life the human infant struggles indiscriminately against any restraining force, whether it be another human being of a blanket which confines his movements.”

People feel angry when they sense an offense that someone is responsible for and “when they feel they can still influence the situation”.

“angry people are more likely to demonstrate correspondence bias- the tendency to… rely more on stereotypes, and pay less attention to details and more attention to the superficial… unlike other ‘negative’ emotions such as sadness and fear, which promote analytical thinking”.

“Showing anger during a negotiation may increase the ability of the anger expresser to succeed in negotiation… the anger expressers were perceived as stubborn, dominant and powerful.. people were inclined to easily give up to those who were perceived by them as powerful and stubborn, rather than soft and submissive”.

anita