To yell or not to yell

When is the last time that you really gave vent to a spleen full of anger? Maybe it was when the operator at your bank’s off-shore call centre thought that you wanted to have a credit limit increase when you really wanted to enquire why a “transaction fee” was being charged monthly to an account that you don’t use. Or perhaps it was when the man in the green shirt parked you in while he “ran in to buy a sausage roll”, a transaction that apparently took 15 minutes. There are many occasions in life when you could get angry but the question is, should you get angry? Do you or anyone else benefit from expressing anger? The answer, according to a new study, is…maybe.

To explore the relationship between anger expression and health in two different cultures researchers looked at data from the Midlife in the United States Survey and the Midlife in Japan Survey. To measure health the researchers looked at biomarkers for inflammation and cardiovascular functioning (they chose these two health parameters as they have been linked to anger in previous research).

To see how these markers might relate to anger the researchers looked at various aspects of anger including how often the subjects expressed anger through behaviour (“I slam doors”) or words (“I say nasty things”).

It emerged that greater expression of anger was associated with greater negative health outcomes for Americans. However, for Japanese participants greater anger expression actually reduced biological health risk. These associations existed even after factors like age, smoking, and social status were taken into account.

The researchers say the effect probably exists because in America expressing anger seems to reflect the degree to which people experience negative events. However, in Japanese culture anger may reflect the degree to which you feel empowered an entitled as anger in that culture can be considered appropriate to privilege and power.

It is yet another reminder that nothing exists in isolation. Experiences only have meaning within a cultural context and it is folly to project your own perceptions of an event onto what happens in another culture. Imagine (as John Lennon encouraged us) what could be accomplished if this grain of insight, and a little humility, became part of the global dialogue.