Don't get mad...get mad and motivated.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—When you think of things that keep you motivated in life, your thoughts are most likely positive—family, your spouse, a desire to be a better person. But a new study in the journal Psychological Science suggests that you might add anger to that list. The authors found that people exposed to anger desired certain objects more than when they were exposed to fear—and very few people knew that anger was motivating their choices. That's not always a bad thing, as long as your methods for controlling anger are healthy.

THE DETAILS: In the study's first experiment, 76 college students sat in front of computer screens that flashed images of 10 different objects. Before each object, the computer also flashed an image of an angry face, a fearful face, or an emotionally neutral face, and at the end of the session, they were asked how much they wanted each of the 10 objects. The objects displayed after angry faces ranked among the most desirable, while those that followed fearful faces were least desirable.

In the second experiment, 137 students sat through two tests involving just two objects and a device that measured handgrip strength. For the first half, images of two objects, a mug and a glove, were flashed just before an image of an angry or emotionally neutral face. In the next step, the students were told they were testing a new handgrip device, and were asked to squeeze it each time an object appeared on the screen. Half the students were told to simply squeeze the device, and the other half were told they would get the object if they squeezed it. As with the previous experiment, the object that had been associated with anger in the first half was considered more desirable, based on the fact that students who were told they could obtain the device squeezed the handgrip harder and longer than those who were told to just squeeze the device when the object appeared.

WHAT IT MEANS: Anger can be a powerful motivator, the study authors said in an accompanying statement. "This makes sense if you think about the evolution of human motivation," writes Henk Aarts, PhD, professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and lead author of the study. Using the example of food, he adds, a limited supply will lead to anger and aggression, increasing the likelihood that someone will get food. "If the food does not make you angry or doesn't produce aggression in your system, you may starve and lose the battle," he notes.

"Anger tends to be an energizing emotion that many people channel into action," says psychologist Jeffrey Rossman, PhD, director of Life Management at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Massachusetts, and a Rodale.com advisor. Just look at politics or social causes about which people feel very passionately. "Some people find that anger helps them initiate positive action," he adds. "Anger can actually be a powerful way to react to an injustice, to a hurt, or to feeling helpless."