Playing mad: Is there such a thing as healthy anger?

The great baseball player Ted Williams once said: “There’s only one way to become a hitter. Go up to the plate and get mad. Get mad at yourself and mad at the pitcher.” While it has long been established that our performance is affected by our emotional state, it isn’t always a given that an emotion such as anger will improve our ability to perform. The Ted Williams quote shows that while plenty of anecdotal examples abound suggesting that anger can be used as a performance enhancer, it begs the question: Does performing while angry really help performance at a high level? For instance, could a golfer summon up a surge of anger in order to hit the ball further? (Think Happy Gilmore.) Or would the same golfer perform in a chaotic, uneven manner—or unravel altogether—having to negotiate a difficult shot? (Again, think Happy Gilmore.)

What’s rooted in this dilemma is how specific situations can benefit from anger, while others that require more focus and precision may suffer. Some think that anger­—be it good, bad, or otherwise—can be a performance-enhancing tool if properly channeled. While research doesn’t support this specific idea, it does stress the importance of being able to regulate anger in order to perform optimally. Moreover, a 2008 study appearing in Psychological Science finds that producing anger—for example, by listening to anger-inducing music or recalling past events in which a person was angry—helped performance in confrontational situations such as violent video games. We usually prefer not to feel negative emotions—however, the findings of this study demonstrate that individuals can be motivated to experience unpleasant emotions in the short term if such emotions offer useful benefits.

Take into consideration that anger isn’t always easily managed and can lead one to lose focus on the task at hand. It’s difficult for most of us to produce this emotion on demand in an effective manner. This type of arousal leads a person to focus on the source of anger for retaliation while putting the overall goal in the background. In many combat situations, this can prove to be fatal to the larger mission. Uncontrollable anger can also lead to stress and mental fatigue, which are serious performance degraders. Also, anger is associated with decreased pain tolerance. So, while anger may motivate you to fight, it probably isn’t the most useful performance tool.

The takeaway message on whether anger is useful as a performance-enhancing tool is this: While it offers a powerful rush of adrenaline, anger is usually short-lived and hard to control effectively. Because of its volatile effects on concentration and other mental resources, it tends to have a very short shelf life, which means utilizing it in a consistent/sustained measured capacity is probably not a reasonable expectation for those engaged in high-level performance.

For more information on how to control anger and other emotions, take a look at the Emotional Strength Tools in HPRC’s Mind Tactics section.