byAMY FLEMING(@amy fleming)
Amy is a freelance science writer and editor.is not particularly productive. It doesn’t go anywhere, it just
spreads,” he says.
It’s hard to find evidence of the extent to which Twitter anger
impacts on life off-screen. “Social media is an extension of
what is already there,” says Balick. Poverty, inequality, mistrust
of politicians, threats to reproductive rights, social exclusion
and many other real issues are making people angry. “In some
cases [social media] may be an accelerator, increasing the anger,
frustration and polarisation that is already there.” One could also
argue that the way we curate our news sources feeds polarisation.
“Social media sites like Twitter power up confirmation bias,”
he says. “You have an opinion on one thing, your natural
confirmation bias will gear you towards accepting news and
stories that appeal to your opinion, and then Twitter or Facebook
further encapsulates you into a filter bubble. It is arguable that
this induces and increases a kind of righteous indignation that
may indeed lead to a behaviour outside the social network.”AND BREATHEÉ
There are strategies to help you stay reasonable when angry. “It’s
all about trying to regulate that strong emotion,” says Heym.
She says there’s good evidence that a method called ‘cognitive
reappraisal’ will help. This means taking a step back from the
provocation and trying to see it from a different viewpoint.
Focusing on breathing or counting can help. “If somebody nips
a parking space away right in front of you, this creates an angry
response,” says Heym. “You might start muttering or shouting,
you might start beeping the horn, some people might get out of
the car and attack the person. Trying to reappraise the situation,
and learning how to gain prefrontal control over these angry
desires, can help.”
Trying to repress angry feelings isn’t the answer, however.
“If you keep your anger in too much and you don’t express it,
DUKE DOWNEY/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/POLARIS/EYEVINE X2it can backfire,” warns Heym. Expending your angry energy by
playing sports can be beneficial. Or if you’re
bubbling over and about to lose it, Heym
says that displacing your angry response
can help avert catastrophe. “Hit the car seat
rather than getting out of the car and hitting
a person,” she suggests. “Just to get rid of
that intense outburst that you’re feeling at
this moment, because losing control can
come at huge costs.”
Mindfulness has also shown promising
results. It helps train your mind to see
and understand what’s happening in the
moment, without reacting. “The more you
practise mindfulness, the better you get
at it,” says Heym. “You learn that these
negative emotions are transient experiences.
Our heart rate shoots up, we are adrenalised
and we want to react, but observing your
own state helps you to see how this is
transient and goes away and then we can
deal with the problem in a much more
efficient manner.”
Verbal aggression, says Heym, can be
as hurtful as violent aggression. Whether
you’re about react to a confrontational
tweet, an overtired child or being beeped
at while driving, the message is, “Try to
take a step back, take a breath, remove
yourself from that frustration point, and
cognitively reappraise before you act.”ABOVEPsychologist
Dr Philip Zimbardo was
interested in the power of
anonymity. In one
experiment, he found that
when people had their
faces hidden, they were
more willing to administer
electric shocks to other
people