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Title: How Americans can break their outrage addiction
Source: Quarz
URL Source: https://qz.com/1333018/how-american ... break-their-outrage-addiction/
Published: Jul 21, 2018
Author: Ephrat Livni
Post Date: 2019-09-04 00:38:57 by Gatlin
Keywords: None
Views: 2204
Comments: 24

How Americans can break their outrage addiction

Anger is thrilling, although we’re loath to admit it. Whatever our ideological positions, scrolling through social media or reading the news, we get a delicious tingle of emotion over the latest scandal, the outrage du jour. The feeling is pleasing, even if negative. It aligns us with one group or another, generates a sense of engagement, and reminds us we’re alive!

New research from the Pew Research Center reveals that after the 2016 US presidential election, use of the newly introduced Facebook “angry” emoji rose dramatically in response to politicians’ posts.

Between Feb. 24, 2016–when Facebook first gave its users the option of reacting with anger, love, sadness, amusement and surprise—and Election Day (Nov. 8), the Facebook audience for congressional posts used the “angry” emoji 3.6 million times. But during the same amount of time following the election, that number rose to nearly 14 million. Increased use of the “angry” reaction continued throughout 2017 and outpaced the other four new emoji options. “[A]nger emerged as the most popular reaction,” the researchers write.

“Anger is a public epidemic in America; it contaminates everything from media controversy to road rage to wars to mass shootings,” according to Jean Kim, a psychiatrist for the US Department of Health and Human Services and assistant professor at George Washington University. Kim says that anger is addictive—it feels good and overrides moral and rational responses because it originates from our primordial, original limbic system—the lizard brain, if you will. This is the part of our brain that responds automatically and is directly connected to the fight-or-flight response system. It controls adrenaline rushes, including those fueled by anger. Outrage gives us an unhappy high we keep trying to replicate.

The dangers of getting hooked

We’re becoming controversy junkies, as the Washington Post (paywall) puts it. You might say that’s OK because outrage about injustices—like sexual harassment and abuse—fuels positive changes and causes us to become less tolerant of dangerous behaviors, as the #MeToo movement has shown.

Yet there’s a downside, too, which is that we become addicted to unhealthy emotions and perpetually chase the next angry high. This ultimately makes it impossible—in the political context, for example—to engage in reasoned debate.

The psychology of outrage is of increasing interest to academics because it seems to be fueling society and creating “a severity shift.” The more outraged we become and the more we see others upset, the more we feel justified in being angry ourselves, according to University of Chicago legal scholars who studied jury deliberation processes. One incensed individual can inflame a group and move their views, resulting in a much larger damage award for a plaintiff than the group initially contemplated. The opposite is also true. A “leniency shift” occurs when people aren’t incensed about an issue.

Just a cursory glance at the tenor of cultural discussion online and in the media reveals an outsized level of anger, hyperbole, incivility, and tribalism, according to political scientist Jeffrey Berry and sociologist Sarah Sobieraj of Tufts University, authors of The Outrage Industry. This trend reinforces divides and extremist views, making moderation seem bland and tasteless—and making it ever more difficult to reason about disagreements.

Because the media business relies on audience feelings for success —and anger, fear, and anxiety are all potent emotions—individual reporters and news outlets are then motivated to generate sensations. “America has developed a robust and successful Outrage Industry that makes money from calling political figures idiots, or even Nazis,” Berry and Sobieraj write.

Complex issues are simplified to fit in a tweet or headline and the messages make us feel good, even while they make us mad. The simplification creates an illusion that problems are easier to solve than they are, indeed that all problems would be solved if only they (whoever they are) thought like us.

The result of all this extreme expression, however, is that people feel increasingly safe in expressing views that might be considered taboo, like xenophobia. In a 2017 paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, entitled “From Extreme to Mainstream: How Social Norms Unravel,” economists discuss two experiments they conducted that show “the unraveling of social norms in communication” can happen very rapidly.

In the first experiment, participants were offered a bonus reward if they authorized researchers to make a donation to an anti-immigration organization on their behalf. Subjects who expected their decision to be observed by the surveyor were significantly less likely to accept the offer than those told the choice was anonymous. In other words, people were more likely to approve of the donation if they didn’t think the researchers would see them being xenophobic.

However, as participants’ perceptions of Donald Trump’s popularity changed with his victory in the presidential election campaign, “the wedge between private and public behavior” was eliminated. When the experiment was conducted again, subjects felt safer about revealing their xenophobia because the new US president was vocal about his feelings. Thus, what was once seen as an extremist view and kept relatively secret became a social norm, a feeling to be revealed without compunction.

In a second experiment, subjects playing “dictator games” revealed that they judged a person less negatively for publicly expressing a political view they disagree with if that’s the majority view in a person’s social environment. So, though the subjects themselves disagreed with the view, they were receptive to the notion that it was popular and thus acceptable.

The comfortable view through a polarized lens

What we may consider shameful personally becomes justified by the prevalence of a viewpoint. And the more we communicate extremes, the more normal they seem until no middle ground can be reached.

Most notably—as observed by a Harvard paper examining academic literature on anger’s effect on judgment (pdf)—”once activated, anger can color people’s perceptions, form their decisions, and guide their behavior while they remain angry, regardless of whether the decisions at hand are related to the source of their anger.” Scientific studies show that anger makes people indiscriminately punitive, careless thinkers, and eager to take action. It colors our perception of what’s happening and skews ideas about what right action might be.

So, anger motivates us, which can be good. But perhaps not so much if all the feeling does is inspire more outraged tweets or compound feelings of division. Channeling anger into positive action requires careful thought, not just reaction, which means that our best responses arise when we’re not upset and are less intent.

Paradoxically perhaps, diplomacy and activism require great restraint—in addition to will and activity—the ability to see past the moment and emotions, examine the big picture, and think in terms of the greater good. No one who has sat at a negotiating table and been so angry they couldn’t concede some legitimacy in another person’s position has ever resolved a dispute—and famously “getting to yes” is the goal of negotiation.

On a personal level, the need to always be feeling something, anything, even anger, leaves us depleted. We rise and fall with the cultural or social tide, are tossed about by waves of someone else’s creation, when swimming steadily might serve us better, both mentally and physically.

Stepping back to move forward

The state of perpetual outrage is a health risk. Anger is associated with increased heart disease, eating disorders, car accidents, and mental health problems. Generating feeling all the time, as news outlets do for money, and individuals do to grow a following on social media, leads to a diseased society, literally and metaphorically.

To stay healthy then, it’s best to maintain a sense of perspective, to step back from—not into—the fray, especially when you’re most offended and you have nothing useful to express besides outrage. That doesn’t mean you become indifferent to injustices or passive to the point of inaction. On the contrary, keeping a cool distance from the daily events that fuel your social group’s outrage makes you more capable of contending with reality and making decisions that might improve the direction or rhetorical tenor of events in the grand scheme.

The more important the issue, the more you hold what’s at stake in a debate dear, the more critical it is to keep your wits about you rather than react wildly. Outrage won’t serve you or society unless it’s fueled wisely. In the words of the ancient Japanese guide for samurais (pdf), the Hagakure, ”Matters of great concern should be treated lightly. Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.”

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#1. To: Deckard (#0) (Edited)

Deckard, you posted to me:
If you're not outraged by this [video] …
I did not watch the video because I have no interest in any “indignation erotica” that is intended to cause me to become “outraged” and initiate within me fierce anger, emotional shock, or any grievous annoyance. I will never be provoked to become “outraged” by something I have no control over. Furthermore, I fail to understand – not that I try very hard to do so – why you let “indignation erotica” make you so intensely angry and dumb you down so much that you have become addicted to it.

Oh, what’s “indignation erotica” – you ask. It’s a term that identifies media articles, opinion blogs and videos that have been carefully designed to make someone like you get very upset and react by showing extreme anger – with “outrage” as you say.

Deckard, it is most unfortunate that you have become so miserably addicted to depressive “indignation erotica” and I am here to tell you that the way for you to be happy and productive is to avoid that addiction. You need to learn how to focus on happy and productive things – engage in daily activities and seek media outlets that are more inclusive with a positive outlook. You should not continue to search out the things out there on the Internet that will for sure completely piss you off.

The fact is, there are occasionally a very few hateful, horrible cops who do bad things and there are cop-haters all over the Internet who make money by posting some of these terrible things. Since they get paid for the number of clicks that they get on their website, they may not even find the things they publish so very terrible – but the fact that you do is what should really matter here.

Continually searching out and reading these things can disrupt your daily life and cause you to react in various ways – like immediately running over to LF to repost the “indignation erotica” you just discovered, either to share the satisfaction you have derived from your habit or to intentionally cause controversy.

Over time, you have failed to realize that oddly enough, the cycle of your reaction has become so addictive that you continue DAILY to search out blog posts and news articles that cause you to be outraged – just so you can cause vicious forum debates and try to find someone who takes exception so you can “put them in their place.”

Am I right – Or, am I right?

Salute,
Gatlin
[AKA: Parsons]

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   4:07:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Deckard (#0)

Deckard, in case you did not read the entire article, I want to repeat this for you:
Kim says that anger is addictive—it feels good and overrides moral and rational responses because it originates from our primordial, original limbic system—the lizard brain, if you will. This is the part of our brain that responds automatically and is directly connected to the fight-or-flight response system. It controls adrenaline rushes, including those fueled by anger. Outrage gives us an unhappy high we keep trying to replicate.

I felt that important because you said I should feel “outrage.”

No thank you, I will not to do that because it is as the article states:

Outrage gives us an unhappy high we keep trying to replicate.
You said that you no longer do drugs, so I guess you now get your highs off of “outrage” - Eh

You just keep on being “outraged” …

Salute,
Gatlin
[AKA: Parsons]

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   4:27:10 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Gatlin (#1)

I did not watch the video because I have no interest...

...in the truth.

Trolling for attention Gatslime?

Poor baby.

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2019-09-04   5:01:41 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Gatlin (#1)

you continue DAILY to search out blog posts and news articles that cause you to be outraged – just so you can cause vicious forum debates and try to find someone who takes exception so you can “put them in their place.”

I post articles on a variety of topics, and yes, I do post deliberately provocative articles in order to stimulate debate.

As an added benefit, the responses they get allows me to weed out and identify the government sheep and cop worshipers (like you for instance).

Your insistence that I post only articles that meet with your "approval" is just another example of you trying to turn this forum into a Gatlin-approved echo chamber where any ideas or concepts that you find "uncomfortable" are verboten.

Guess what Goebbels?

You do not get to decide what is allowed to be posted or discussed - Got it?

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2019-09-04   5:16:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Deckard (#4)

I do post deliberately provocative articles in order to stimulate debate.

Ha.... and that’s why LameStreamMedia posts the same bias, AGENDA filled YELLOW JOURNALISTIC propaganda , to “stimulate” the people?

You post your shit to agitate the few posters left here. It’s called agitate propaganda... and if you had a fucking shred of honesty, you’d admit it.

GrandIsland  posted on  2019-09-04   6:31:25 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: GrandIsland (#5)

Ha.... and that’s why LameStreamMedia posts the same bias,

Can win with you pricks, can I?

I post from mainstream sources and it's "biased".

I post from alternative sites, and it's "fringe CT".

Why don't you two arbiters of "acceptable content" get together with Stone and make a list of sites that would be "allowed" to be posted from - OK Goebbels?

You and Parsons will only be happy when this site becomes the echo chamber that you have wet dreams about becoming.

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2019-09-04   6:54:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Deckard (#4)

As an added benefit, the responses they get allows me to weed out and identify the government sheep and cop worshipers (like you for instance).

LMAO ...

And just pray tell, Sherlock Holmes, what are you able to do with the startling discovery clues you “weeded out” as a result of your amazing ridiculously amateurish sleuthing?

Continuing to LMAO ...

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   7:55:10 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Deckard, GrandIsland (#6)

Can [not] win with you pricks, can I?

You forgot a word – I helped you out.

Praise be – you have finally, in this one instance, come to grips with facing REALITY.

But you keep trying to win, because you are a great source of amusement …

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   7:59:50 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: GrandIsland (#5)

It’s called agitate propaganda...

I like that.

It's really good.

May I use it from time to time while posting to Deckard?

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   8:01:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: Deckard (#4) (Edited)

I post articles on a variety of topics, and yes, I do post deliberately provocative articles in order to stimulate debate.

I appreciate the articles you post for the most part. Keep up the good work.

A K A Stone  posted on  2019-09-04   8:06:10 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: A K A Stone (#10)

I appreciate the articles you post for the most part. Keep up the good work.

Masochist?

Just kidding.

He does post a good article - periodically.

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   8:11:03 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: A K A Stone (#10)

I appreciate the articles you post for the most part. Keep up the good work.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

As you know, even though I think you are being unfair to Matt by calling him a liar, in deference to your request I have refrained from posting any Matt Agorist articles - instead, I have used the sources cited in the FTP articles.

I will add that the articles that I post do usually generate the most replies and discussions.

It seems to me that posting stories that everyone agrees with is counterproductive to maintaining a lively and vibrant forum.

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2019-09-04   8:11:40 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: Deckard (#12)

Post Matt. Don't flood us with Matt though please.

A K A Stone  posted on  2019-09-04   8:25:38 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: A K A Stone (#13)

You Old "Softie" ...

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   8:35:12 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#15. To: Gatlin (#14)

Yes I really am a softy.

A K A Stone  posted on  2019-09-04   8:43:04 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#16. To: A K A Stone (#15)

Yes I really am a softy.

I do believe that - Seriously.

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   12:54:23 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#17. To: A K A Stone (#13)

Post Matt. Don't flood us with Matt though please.

I think I puked a little, in my mouth.

You give that asshole an inch, he’ll take a mile.

GrandIsland  posted on  2019-09-04   18:20:17 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#18. To: GrandIsland, A K A Stone (#17) (Edited)

Post Matt. Don't flood us with Matt though please.

I think I puked a little, in my mouth.
You give that asshole an inch, he’ll take a mile.

He already “took the mile” behind Stone’s back as shown in at least one case by clicking here. There may be others.

This article was originally published in The Free Thought Project by Matt Agorist. However, Deckard looked around and found it reposted in From The Trenches - so he slipped it in on Stone.

Yep, you give him an inch and he’ll take a mile.

While you sometimes don’t even need to give him an inch for him to take a mile – like he did above.

Sneaky devil – yes, he is …

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-04   19:13:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#19. To: Gatlin (#0) (Edited)

In the words of the ancient Japanese guide for samurais (pdf), the Hagakure, ”Matters of great concern should be treated lightly. Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.”

When I was

a Teenage jackpoT TournamenT scoring official

(( Never a good bowler ))

The bowling secreT I was Told

don'T even shooT for The sTrikes

(( hiTTing heavy on The head pin ))

(( will geT you The spliTs ))

concenTraTe on making The spares

The sTrikes will ineviTably come

STaying ouT of The guTTers of life

is curbing your ego

There's a … Trick --- for ThaT Too

Love
boris

If you ... don't use exclamation points --- you should't be typeing ! Commas - semicolons - question marks are for girlie boys !

BorisY  posted on  2019-09-05   2:30:05 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#20. To: BorisY (#19) (Edited)

That was a good one, Boris.

When someone studies philosophy they want to understand how and why people do certain things and how to live a good life.

It is obvious to me that you understand the "how and why" and that you have the "how to live a good life" down pat.

I learned early on in during my childhood days that the simple way to keep the little things from taking over your life was:

“Don't Sweat the Small Stuff” - While remembering that it’s “All Small Stuff.”
I still live by that …

It is always a pleasure to read your posts, Boris.

Salute,
Gatlin

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-05   3:56:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#21. To: Gatlin, GrandIsland (#18)

Still no responses to the actual article from you two pricks.

Just more personal attacks.

This article was originally published in The Free Thought Project by Matt Agorist. However, Deckard looked around and found it reposted in From The Trenches -

The same freaking article was posted in MSM sources as well.

I've finally got you figured out - any article that offends your delicate sensibilities, no matter the source, turns you both into whining little bitches

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2019-09-05   5:11:58 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#22. To: Gatlin (#20)

WhaT I learned

in college

psychology - economics - poliTical science

Milton Freidman explained iT The besT of all

There's Two kinds of science

The posiTive - how Things are - realiTy / probabiliTy

The normaTive - how you wanT Things To be - fanTasy / possibiliTy

crazy people don'T know The difference

The normaTive can only be Temporarily supporTed

David HorowiTz based iT all

on The naTure of man

liberals believe naTurally good

ConservaTives inherenTly evil

love
boris

ps

Even idealism - every useful discovery

has To be realiTy based

If you ... don't use exclamation points --- you should't be typeing ! Commas - semicolons - question marks are for girlie boys !

BorisY  posted on  2019-09-05   5:49:47 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#23. To: Deckard (#21)

Still no responses to the actual article from you two pricks.

Just more personal attacks.

And well DESERVED ones, I proudly admit.

I trust I have done a satisfactory job in those.

However, I will continue to strive for marked improvement.

Gatlin  posted on  2019-09-05   10:37:17 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#24. To: Gatlin (#20)

whaT I observed

dumb people go on TilT

wiTh lucky sTreaks

The unlucky ones

finish Them off

love
boris

ps

avoiding Them

releases a loT of posiTive energy - good Things Too

If you ... don't use exclamation points --- you should't be typeing ! Commas - semicolons - question marks are for girlie boys !

BorisY  posted on  2019-10-17   20:13:01 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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