New research shows that feeling anger can help you overcome challenges or obstacles that hinder success. While most people believe that a state of happiness is ideal, the recent study revealed that a mix of emotions, including negative states, results in the best outcomes.

According to NBC News, researchers from Texas A&M University said that study participants who completed a variety of challenging tasks while in a state of anger performed better than those who felt other emotions such as sadness, desire or amusement.

“We found that anger led to better outcomes in situations that were challenging and involved obstacles to goals,” said lead author Heather Lench, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the university. But anger did not improve performances in easier tasks, noted the study authors.

The study consisted of six experiments that tested whether anger helped people achieve their goals. Lench says that the results of the first experiment were the most interesting. This measured the number of word puzzles participants could solve in different states of emotion. 

Undergraduate students at Texas A&M were randomly assigned one emotion: anger, desire, sadness, amusement, or a neutral state. They were then shown images to help elicit the emotion. For example, to provoke anger, the students were shown insults about the school’s football team.

The participants then had 20 minutes to solve four sets of seven anagrams which varied in difficulty. A computer program measured how long the participants spent on each puzzle. The results showed that angry participants solved more puzzles than those feeling any of the other emotions, says NBC News.

Amazingly, angry participants solved 39% more puzzles than students who felt neutral. The angry participants also were more persistent by spending more time to effectively solve each puzzle, says Lench.

“When people were angry and they persisted, they were more likely to succeed,” she said. “But in all the other emotional states, when they persisted, they were more likely to fail. So, it seems to suggest that people were persistent more effectively when they were angry.”

Studies have shown, however, that there is a downside to anger. A 2022 study from the European Heart Journal found that anger may contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure in men and in people with diabetes. Angry lovers may resort to belittling and aggressive communication, says Lench, but it could also help partners express their needs and be heard.

Lench says that while anger can be motivating, it’s important not to turn off thinking and uncover why we are angry. Experts say that anger can be an important signal that things are not going well and need to change. Expressing anger in social situations may help others listen to your perspective and increase the changes of resolution. Even if your words come out biting or aggressive, people may still be receptive to your concerns.