The Evolutionary Justification for Anger

In modern society, anger often seems like an unnecessary burden. In the examples given in the introduction, the behavior of the individuals described would not seem to be productive by any definition of the word. Indeed, anger often inhibits smooth social exchanges and office communications. But it is important to understand that anger stems from very natural circumstances.

Over the course of millions of years, humans have evolved from very simple organisms into the complex, thinking, social creatures that we are today. In the process, we have undergone many intermediate stages of evolution, and modern humans exhibit many biological similarities to more "primitive" animals such as chimpanzees and monkeys. These similarities include the basic emotions.

In nature, animals have to cope directly with environmental stresses. These may include fighting for food, defending themselves or their offspring from danger, or confronting a rival to gain a mate. All of these situations present a threat to which which the animal must rise. The emotions that are experienced by animals in these situations are physiological responses to the threatening stimuli which they are faced with. As discussed in the biology section of this site, the benefits conferred by an adrenaline rush would help an organism to meet physical danger more effectively.

Often, these animal reactions do appear to resemble anger. Most people are familiar with the image of a snarling gorilla or chimpanzee, and everyone can picture an "angry" dog. These instinctive reactions help mammals to survive and pass their genes to future generations. Humans evolved from apes, and have thus inherited many of the biological processes that are necessary for emotions to be expressed.

While the basic ideas expressed above are generally accepted, research psychologists differ in their opinions of how severely human evolutionary history affects emotions. For a description of some of the major schools of thought on this topic, see the biology section.