The Hunter and the Hunted
Excerpts from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051025075538.htm
A provocative new study has found that people who respond to stressful situations with angry facial expressions, rather than fearful expressions, are less likely to suffer such ill effects of stress as high blood pressure and high stress hormone secretion. The paper, authored by scholars at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine will be published in the November 1 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.
"We tested whether facial muscle movements in response to a stressor would reveal changes in the body's two major stress-response systems -- the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis. Analyses of facial expressions revealed that the more fear individuals displayed in response to the stressors, the higher their biological responses to stress. By contrast, the more anger and disgust (indignation) individuals displayed in response to the same stressors, the lower their responses," said Jennifer Lerner, the Estella Loomis McCandless Associate Professor of Psychology and Decision Science at Carnegie Mellon and lead author of the study.
This paper challenges two long-held assumptions: one, that stress elicits undifferentiated negative emotions and as a consequence produces a uniform biological response; and two, that all negative emotions, such as fear and anger, provoke the same psychological and biological reactions. This paper builds on a line of work led by Lerner showing that anger triggers feelings of certainty and control as well as optimistic perceptions of risk. A landmark study by Lerner found that Americans' initial emotional reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks predicted their risk perceptions two months later, those reacting with anger the most optimistic and the most likely to favor aggressive responses to terrorism…
…In the past, researchers have assumed that anger can contribute to coronary disease and hypertension, co-author Shelley Taylor added. Although a chronically angry, explosive temperament may do just that, justifiable anger in response to short-term frustrating circumstances appears to be a healthier response than responding with fear.
During the experiment, 92 participants performed mathematical exercises…To ensure that the tasks were creating stress, researchers assessed the participants' emotional states and measured their stress hormone (i.e., cortisol) level, pulse, heart rate and blood pressure during periods of relaxation as well as immediately following the exercises. Increases in those biological measures were less pronounced in the participants displaying anger and indignation than in the participants displaying fear.
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Comments from SE. My Networker noticed a connection between this item and another that I had picked out for later use in this blog.
Positive Thinking the Key to a Longer Life? (from http://psychcentral.com/blog/)
There are various related topics in psychology: Fight or flight. Learned helplessness. Mastery. The Thinkerer represents this concept as the Hunter. (The opposite behavior, the prey response, is not included in the Thinkerer because I have never seen the value of being the “deer in the headlights.”)
From the standpoint of personal psychology, the results of this study illustrate that the effect of a behavioral stressor is deeply influenced by how a person interprets it and reacts.
The Thinkerer: “The difference between a trial run and a failure lies in what you get out of it.”
One word of caution about the results. The biological side seems to have been well done. But I doubt that the same can be said about the characterization of facial expressions. There is no objective way to characterize an emotional state from expressions. You can measure the tensing of muscles, but you can “observe” the emotional state only by asking the person or by getting judgments from others.
In the present case, I wonder if “anger” might have earned other characterizations (for example, “determination”) with different methods. This issue is irrelevant to the distinction between the two kinds of reaction, but it is critical in helping people understand what kind of reaction is useful and when. That is why the Thinkerer uses the metaphor of the Hunter rather than of the Fighter. We readily think of the Hunter as determined, focused, methodical, and supported by a strong emotion that is somewhat like anger, but really deserves another name.
I don’t think I have figured all of this out yet. My lack of understanding does not make me fearful. It doesn’t make me angry either. Who could I be angry at? Myself? Would that kind of anger be productive? What I do feel is determined to gather more information and to find connections with what I know. The voice of the Hunter. One of my favorite voices.
A provocative new study has found that people who respond to stressful situations with angry facial expressions, rather than fearful expressions, are less likely to suffer such ill effects of stress as high blood pressure and high stress hormone secretion. The paper, authored by scholars at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine will be published in the November 1 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.
"We tested whether facial muscle movements in response to a stressor would reveal changes in the body's two major stress-response systems -- the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis. Analyses of facial expressions revealed that the more fear individuals displayed in response to the stressors, the higher their biological responses to stress. By contrast, the more anger and disgust (indignation) individuals displayed in response to the same stressors, the lower their responses," said Jennifer Lerner, the Estella Loomis McCandless Associate Professor of Psychology and Decision Science at Carnegie Mellon and lead author of the study.
This paper challenges two long-held assumptions: one, that stress elicits undifferentiated negative emotions and as a consequence produces a uniform biological response; and two, that all negative emotions, such as fear and anger, provoke the same psychological and biological reactions. This paper builds on a line of work led by Lerner showing that anger triggers feelings of certainty and control as well as optimistic perceptions of risk. A landmark study by Lerner found that Americans' initial emotional reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks predicted their risk perceptions two months later, those reacting with anger the most optimistic and the most likely to favor aggressive responses to terrorism…
…In the past, researchers have assumed that anger can contribute to coronary disease and hypertension, co-author Shelley Taylor added. Although a chronically angry, explosive temperament may do just that, justifiable anger in response to short-term frustrating circumstances appears to be a healthier response than responding with fear.
During the experiment, 92 participants performed mathematical exercises…To ensure that the tasks were creating stress, researchers assessed the participants' emotional states and measured their stress hormone (i.e., cortisol) level, pulse, heart rate and blood pressure during periods of relaxation as well as immediately following the exercises. Increases in those biological measures were less pronounced in the participants displaying anger and indignation than in the participants displaying fear.
----
Comments from SE. My Networker noticed a connection between this item and another that I had picked out for later use in this blog.
Positive Thinking the Key to a Longer Life? (from http://psychcentral.com/blog/)
There are various related topics in psychology: Fight or flight. Learned helplessness. Mastery. The Thinkerer represents this concept as the Hunter. (The opposite behavior, the prey response, is not included in the Thinkerer because I have never seen the value of being the “deer in the headlights.”)
From the standpoint of personal psychology, the results of this study illustrate that the effect of a behavioral stressor is deeply influenced by how a person interprets it and reacts.
The Thinkerer: “The difference between a trial run and a failure lies in what you get out of it.”
One word of caution about the results. The biological side seems to have been well done. But I doubt that the same can be said about the characterization of facial expressions. There is no objective way to characterize an emotional state from expressions. You can measure the tensing of muscles, but you can “observe” the emotional state only by asking the person or by getting judgments from others.
In the present case, I wonder if “anger” might have earned other characterizations (for example, “determination”) with different methods. This issue is irrelevant to the distinction between the two kinds of reaction, but it is critical in helping people understand what kind of reaction is useful and when. That is why the Thinkerer uses the metaphor of the Hunter rather than of the Fighter. We readily think of the Hunter as determined, focused, methodical, and supported by a strong emotion that is somewhat like anger, but really deserves another name.
I don’t think I have figured all of this out yet. My lack of understanding does not make me fearful. It doesn’t make me angry either. Who could I be angry at? Myself? Would that kind of anger be productive? What I do feel is determined to gather more information and to find connections with what I know. The voice of the Hunter. One of my favorite voices.
posted by Selby Evans at 7:55 AM
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