Anger is also beneficial

The long-held concept still holds that people just like pleasant feelings - like excitement - and avoid unpleasant feelings - like anger. But that is not always true.

Psychologist Maya Tamir and colleagues, from Boston University and Stanford, have checked whether people like to experience helpful emotions, even if it's annoying.

(Photo: Wordpress.com) The team asked volunteers to play one of the two computer games, or the confrontation Soldier of fortune (a shooting game where more and more enemies are killed) good), or Diner Dash has no confrontation (the player instructs a waitress to serve customers). These people must then assess how much they want to participate in different activities before playing the game.

The team found that volunteers liked activities that made them even more angry (like listening to annoying songs, remembering the memories they used to be angry at .), when preparing to perform confrontation.

In contrast, participants prefer more relaxing activities when they plan to perform non-confrontational tasks.

In addition, angry volunteers perform better games against others. However, this group is no better than the rest of the friendly games, such as customer service.

Thus, it seems that people are not always looking for ways to get comfortable, and are even willing to endure some unpleasant emotions if necessary.