0:00

This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanta.

0:02

When Saru Najarian was about 10,

0:05

his pastime was collecting baseball and

0:07

basketball cards. These were hard

0:09

to come by in Cyprus, where he grew up. So

0:12

when Saru's cousin pestered him to share his

0:14

cards with her, he always said no. But

0:17

she didn't give up. As she

0:19

pestered and begged and pleaded... It

0:22

came to a boiling point where I got so

0:24

angry that everything

0:27

blacked out and

0:30

I slapped her really hard. Saru's

0:33

arm seemed to act of its own

0:35

volition. A second later...

0:38

I came back into the reality and

0:41

I saw her crying and I had no

0:43

idea what I had done. Paula

0:48

Reed experienced something similar at the same

0:50

age. She was a

0:52

budding environmentalist with a peace ecology flag

0:55

hanging on her bedroom wall. One

0:58

afternoon, she heard the cracking of trees and

1:00

a low rumble. She

1:02

realized that her neighbor was knocking

1:04

down trees to build himself

1:06

a shorter driveway. He

1:09

was using a bulldozer. This

1:12

neighbor came up the road

1:14

in the bulldozer and was pushing over

1:16

trees. And something

1:19

in my head just snapped.

1:26

Paula's dad had bought a machete

1:29

in his travels. Without

1:31

thinking, Paula seized the weapon.

1:34

Its blade was about as long

1:36

as her arm. In

1:39

shorts and bare feet, she climbed up on

1:41

the bulldozer and swung the blade. Metal

1:44

struck metal. As

1:49

the bulldozer stopped and retreated, Paula chased

1:51

after it, cutting ribbons in the air

1:54

with a machete. I have

1:56

no idea where that came

1:58

from. But I... I was

2:00

in a complete wild

2:04

red rage. This

2:09

week on the show, Wild Red

2:12

Rage. We

2:14

continue our Emotions 2.0 series with

2:17

a favorite episode about the moments

2:19

when we suddenly snap. Such

2:22

rage can harm others, it can

2:24

harm us. But it turns out

2:27

we would be worse off without it. The

2:31

deep logic of irrational rage, this

2:34

week on Hidden Brain. Support

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for Hidden Brain comes from Nordstrom. Looking

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for prescription only. Safety

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info found at freestylelibre.us. This

4:25

is the story of a woman who snapped. I

4:29

would say that I'm a gentle person, and

4:31

that's me putting

4:33

it optimistically. Jess

4:35

Cavender always thought of herself as

4:37

a timid person. Timid

4:40

to the point of pushover. My brother

4:43

wasn't shy about telling me that I was a doormat

4:45

for most of my life, and I

4:47

didn't want to see myself as a doormat, but

4:49

I also didn't have evidence to the contrary. In

4:54

elementary school, for example, Jess saved up

4:56

years of pocket money and birthday cash,

4:59

storing her savings in a music box.

5:02

Her dream? A much-coveted

5:05

trampoline. Finally,

5:07

one day, she had enough money. She

5:10

and her dad drove to Sam's Club. I

5:13

bought this trampoline, and I was so excited. Until

5:15

her trampoline was taken

5:18

over by intruders. My

5:20

two siblings, my older brother and younger

5:22

sister, would bounce on

5:24

the trampoline as well, and sometimes I couldn't get it

5:26

to myself the way I'd like it. Jess's

5:29

siblings didn't just hog the trampoline.

5:32

They treated her as if she were

5:34

an unwelcome guest. Jess

5:36

tried to get her dad to step in. Instead

5:39

of helping, he offered her some

5:41

advice. My dad suggested to me

5:43

that I, you know, charge them

5:46

to use the trampoline, since

5:48

it was my trampoline and I had done all

5:50

the work to save for it, that I should

5:52

charge them a fee to use it. He

5:55

might as well have suggested she punch someone in

5:57

the face. Her siblings didn't

5:59

even arguing with her, they

6:02

just ignored her. I don't know how I would have ever

6:05

enforced charging 25 cents

6:07

for my siblings to use it. They

6:09

certainly would just be like, no, walk

6:12

past me and get on the trampoline. Jess

6:15

did not experience the slights with fury.

6:18

She accepted them with resignation.

6:21

Over the years, there were other moments like this,

6:24

moments that would have sparked anger in some people.

6:28

But Jess usually kept her cool, until

6:30

one night, years later, when

6:33

she didn't. She

6:37

was in graduate school, living with two

6:39

roommates in off-campus housing. It

6:42

has all of the trimmings

6:44

of being sort of college,

6:48

living where you're paying for a

6:50

lot and not getting very much, and

6:52

people are packed in. Late

6:54

one night, Jess was jolted awake

6:57

by a sound. I hear

6:59

heavy footfalls going down the stairs. Jess

7:02

immediately thought she knew what had happened. Her

7:05

roommate Kim had torn her Achilles tendon

7:07

and was wearing a boot. Jess

7:10

figured that Kim had fallen on the stairs.

7:13

She leaped out of bed, threw on her

7:15

robe, and opened her bedroom door. Her

7:18

other roommate Shelby opened her door at

7:21

the same time. She'd also

7:23

heard the noise. She's looking

7:25

at me and I'm looking at her, and Kim's not at the bottom

7:27

of the stairs, so we both just run

7:30

down the stairs to see what had happened. While

7:33

the both of us arrive at the bottom of the stairs, and

7:35

a very large man with my kitchen

7:37

rag held over his face comes

7:40

wheeling out of the kitchen with a gun

7:42

pointed at us. The

7:46

first thing Jess took in about the man was

7:48

his size. He was at least 6'5". He

7:52

was about a head taller than she was. All

7:55

I could see was his eyes. The

7:57

sclera of his eyes were yellow. And

8:00

aside from that, really I was staring at the barrel

8:02

of the gun. The

8:06

man yelled, where's the money? Get

8:09

the money. Go upstairs. Standing

8:12

there in her robe, with a gun pointed

8:15

at her head, Jess did

8:17

not snap. Instead, her

8:19

mind became cool and analytical.

8:22

What could she do to get out of the

8:25

situation? Out of

8:27

the corner of her eye, she noticed a movement. Another

8:31

man had emerged from a side room. I

8:33

know that they want something valuable.

8:37

And I have nothing. I'm aware that

8:39

I have no cash. I have no

8:42

TV screens. The

8:44

man with a gun motioned for the two women to

8:46

go up the stairs, presumably to fetch

8:48

their wallets. Shelby,

8:50

normally a ball of energy, had

8:53

gone still. I

8:55

discovered that she's frozen. She

8:59

isn't blinking. She's not looking at me. She's

9:02

not moving. So I put

9:04

my hand on her back and I say, everything's going to

9:07

be OK. We're going upstairs. Just give them what they want.

9:11

As Jess and Shelby climbed the stairs, the

9:14

robbers came up behind them. One

9:17

of the guys puts his hand on

9:20

my butt to push me. And

9:22

that's when it occurred

9:25

to me that something sexually

9:27

violent might happen. And

9:41

he's yelling, get on the bed. And

9:43

that's when the sort of thought,

9:45

there's no way in hell that I will

9:47

get on this bed, not for anything. It's

9:49

a second-story building. I probably would have jumped

9:51

out of the window before I actually got

9:53

on the bed. Jess

9:56

kept thinking, what could she

9:58

give the man to make him leave? And

10:01

I'm looking around my room, and I'm looking

10:03

for something of value. I have

10:06

stacks of books. I have dance

10:09

clothes. I have all

10:11

sorts of things that could not

10:13

possibly, in my mind, register

10:15

giving to him. I'm just

10:18

looking around for something valuable to give to

10:20

him so that he will leave. And

10:23

I look down, and I see my

10:25

camera. The

10:27

camera she used for work. Now

10:30

my camera is the main way that

10:32

I provide for myself, and that's how

10:34

I was making enough money to really

10:36

to feed myself. And

10:39

so that represented to me my

10:42

livelihood, my survival. I

10:44

had a split second

10:46

emotional response to it, thinking,

10:49

no, he doesn't get that.

10:52

And that's when everything changed. This

10:55

did not snap when two men invaded

10:57

her home. She didn't snap

11:00

when one of them touched her. She

11:02

didn't snap when she was forced at gunpoint

11:05

into her bedroom and told to get on

11:07

the bed. But

11:09

when she realized the robber might take her camera.

11:12

That's when I realized this person has no right

11:15

to come in here and

11:17

to demand my things or to even be

11:19

in my space. That was really the first

11:22

time that I had a

11:24

strong response to this person violating

11:27

me. I looked at

11:29

the gun, just squarely faced him in a way that

11:31

I don't think I've ever done to anyone and

11:34

said, get out, get

11:36

out of my house. You do

11:39

not belong here. Jess

11:44

could hear the man's accomplice in the other room

11:47

shouting, shoot her, shoot her.

11:50

Jess spotted her cell phone. She grabbed

11:52

it. The robber saw what she was

11:54

doing. And as I

11:57

got my hand on it, he jumped on top of me and

11:59

we're rolling on the floor. fighting each other. He's

12:01

using one hand to try and pry

12:03

the cell phone out and I'm

12:05

using the same hand that's on

12:07

the cell phone to dig my fingernails into his skin

12:10

and then the other hand to try and pry the gun

12:12

out of his hand. Something

12:15

primal stirred inside Jess. She

12:18

was suddenly consumed by blinding

12:20

rage. His

12:23

chest is on my back, his arms

12:25

are around my arms.

12:28

He's completely sort of crouched

12:30

over and around me as we're, you know, falling

12:32

on our sides and I'm kicking and scratching

12:35

and... The ones are flooding

12:37

her mind, not survival.

12:40

Don't let him win. Somehow

12:43

that mattered. I was using

12:46

every ounce of my physical strength

12:49

and not caring that I was inflicting

12:51

pain and actually being like, that's fine,

12:54

that's the point, to get this phone

12:56

back out of his hand. I

12:58

don't know why I was more focused on the phone than the gun, but

13:00

I was. The

13:02

second robber barged into the bedroom. There

13:05

were now two of them in the room, but

13:07

she had no thought for risk or

13:10

danger. Something new

13:12

had taken over. I

13:15

just started screaming. A

13:17

full-on high-pitched blood-circling

13:21

screech of a scream. And

13:24

apparently my scream was so loud that I woke

13:26

up one neighbor who

13:29

was wearing headphones and

13:31

then the other neighbor who was asleep on the other side.

13:35

The men were so startled by the screams

13:37

that they took off. One

13:39

grabbed Jess's laptop on his way out. Jess's

13:43

scream woke up her other roommate.

13:46

Unbelievably, Kim had slept through the whole

13:48

thing. And

13:50

she opened the door and says,

13:52

you know, what's wrong? I was

13:54

like, call the police. In

13:58

that moment, Jess Cavender, who who had

14:00

lived her life as a timid person,

14:03

had no sense that she had acted out

14:05

of character. All

14:07

that unfolded was in no way, shape,

14:09

or form unnatural or surprising to me

14:11

in the moment. It was

14:14

what needed to happen. I

14:17

wasn't surprised at myself until that later when

14:19

I was like, I cannot

14:21

for the life of me believe that I looked

14:23

at a guy who's holding a gun at my

14:26

head and decided that I was going

14:28

to yell at him. Yeah,

14:31

or fight. Jess's

14:39

story reveals a strange truth about

14:41

our capacity for fury. It

14:44

often arrives without warning. It

14:46

seems to have a mind of its own. We

14:49

can ignore serious provocations for

14:51

years and then, boom, we

14:54

snap. Only later

14:56

do we look back at our actions in

14:58

wonder. When

15:02

we come back, understanding the triggers that

15:04

can push even the most mild-mannered among

15:06

us to see red. You're

15:10

listening to Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar

15:12

Vedantu. Support

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for Hidden Brain comes from LinkedIn. When

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they need faster. This

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is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantan. A

17:12

defining quality of wild, red

17:15

rage is that it often comes out

17:17

of nowhere. It takes over

17:19

our minds and deprives us of reason

17:21

and logic. When

17:23

Jess Cavender lost it and literally fought

17:26

a robber who had a gun pointed

17:28

at her head, she took

17:30

a very serious risk. She

17:32

and her roommates could have ended up dead. In

17:35

retrospect, you can say it was foolhardy

17:38

and irrational. All

17:41

this presents a mystery. It's

17:43

taken millions of years of evolution to produce

17:45

the human brain. It

17:47

has an exquisite capacity for reason

17:49

and logic. Why

17:51

would natural selection install a circuit

17:54

breaker to undermine our

17:56

capacity for logical thinking? has

18:00

long puzzled over this question. His

18:02

interest in rage grows out of his fascination

18:04

with the brain, but it's also

18:07

based on an unforgettable personal experience.

18:10

The story he told me has the ring of

18:12

a Hollywood thriller, but with a

18:14

catch. Doug, our leading

18:17

man, is not a

18:19

muscle-bound hero. He's

18:21

a neuroscientist. And not

18:23

just any neuroscientist, but

18:25

a walking stereotype of a neuroscientist.

18:29

Here's his daughter, Kelly Fields. We'd

18:31

be watching a movie

18:34

together and there's some sort of car

18:36

accident or some big scene going

18:38

on. And he'll just sort

18:41

of chime in and be like, wow,

18:43

you can't see the shadow behind that

18:45

plant in the corner anymore. Did you

18:47

notice that they changed the lighting for

18:49

no reason, even though it's the same

18:51

scene? And I would be like, no,

18:53

actually, I was watching the car accident.

18:58

So, yeah, just a very sort of

19:00

typical nerd. Doug

19:03

is five foot seven and weighs

19:05

maybe 135 pounds. Glasses,

19:08

thin hair. Don't

19:13

think of Sean Connery or, you

19:15

know, Matt Damon, you got to think of Woody Allen here.

19:18

In 2007, Doug was scheduled to

19:21

go to Barcelona to present some

19:23

research at a neuroscience conference. He

19:26

decided to turn a work trip into

19:28

a father-daughter vacation and took Kelly with

19:30

him. She was 17.

19:33

He was 57. Their

19:35

first stop was Paris. Waiting

19:38

in line at the Eiffel Tower, Kelly

19:41

got a new glimpse into how her

19:43

dad's mind worked. A

19:45

couple came up to us and was

19:47

speaking perfect English with American accents. And

19:50

they were very nice. And I just noticed they

19:52

were standing too close to us. I kept glancing

19:54

behind us sort of like, why are you standing

19:57

so close? And I noticed

19:59

this woman's near his pants and

20:01

then I look again and I

20:03

notice his pocket is unzipped and I just

20:05

sort of whispered to my dad I think

20:08

they're trying to rob you. Doug

20:11

was completely unfazed. My

20:13

dad informed me that that was a decoy

20:16

wallet. Your dad had a

20:18

decoy wallet? You are

20:20

just as surprised as I was. I was like what?

20:24

He had this special wallet that he would keep

20:26

in his front pocket. It was special because the

20:28

way it was cut to fit into his front

20:31

pocket and that was his wallet. Sorry I'm

20:33

blowing all your covers dad. And

20:36

then he had a

20:38

fake wallet in his back pocket with not a

20:40

lot of money in it and a few fake

20:42

credit cards. Doug came up

20:44

with a strategy many vacations ago. You

20:47

know when you travel it's a wise idea

20:49

not to have all your money and credit cards in one

20:51

place. You know you can get

20:53

robbed or mugged and so the idea

20:56

is you know if it's a pickpocket and they get

20:58

a wallet that's useless that doesn't matter but if

21:01

you're mugged you can hand

21:03

them the wallet or throw it on the ground and run. So

21:05

that's why I do that. For

21:07

anyone keeping score that's

21:09

neuroscientist one, pickpockets

21:12

zero. After

21:18

visiting the Eiffel Tower, father and daughter went

21:20

back to their hotel and packed their bags.

21:23

The next day they took the metro to the

21:25

airport. This is

21:28

when Doug broke one of his cardinal

21:30

rules. I violated my

21:32

rule of having money

21:34

in multiple places because TSA

21:37

makes that difficult when you have

21:39

to go through inspections. So

21:41

I figured we're just going to

21:43

take the ride to the airport so I had everything

21:45

in my wallet. Everything

21:49

in one wallet. We

21:51

got on the metro, lots of people, then

21:53

we came to a stop and everybody on

21:55

the metro train left. Except

21:58

one lady who looked very... sympathetic

22:00

at us and I felt that

22:02

my wallet was gone. They

22:05

had lost their money and credit cards. That's

22:08

neuroscientist one, pickpockets

22:11

one. Doug

22:13

and Kelly still had their passports, so

22:16

they were able to get on their flight to

22:18

Barcelona, where Doug's conference was being held. If

22:20

you have your wallet stolen in

22:22

Europe, how do you check into a hotel?

22:25

What are you gonna do? What ultimately happened

22:27

is I managed to reach my brother

22:30

in the United States and

22:32

he arranged to wire us cash. My

22:36

brother had picked this place

22:38

for us to get money, kind of at random on

22:40

the internet. Doug and Kelly got

22:42

in a cab and gave the driver the address

22:44

of the bank where they were to pick up the money,

22:47

except it wasn't a

22:50

bank. So we

22:52

got in a cab, took us way out

22:54

of the Barcelona tourist area to the most

22:56

seedy neighborhood you've ever seen. As

22:59

vacant shops and trash strewn

23:01

streets replaced sprawling parks and

23:04

cafes, father and

23:06

daughter got more and more anxious. Our

23:09

adrenaline is like coming out our ears already, because

23:11

we've just been pickpocketed and had all the stress.

23:14

And we end up in a seedy part of

23:16

town at an internet cafe.

23:20

And it was just a

23:23

small dingy building full of

23:25

really big men, basically. The

23:28

burly man was staring at a TV. When

23:31

Doug and Kelly entered, the

23:33

men silently turned to watch. Doug

23:36

went up to the cashier. Gave

23:38

him this receipt, he

23:40

reaches in his pocket, pulls out this wad

23:43

of money, and starts peeling off $1,000 or

23:45

something. And

23:48

we were just standing there, sort of looking at them,

23:50

like, are you contacting your friends to come and rob

23:52

us? Kelly and I just know we're gonna

23:54

get robbed again. It was terrible.

23:58

They didn't get robbed. cab

24:00

stayed there. We got in the cab and then we went

24:02

back. The

24:05

next morning, they resolved to put the

24:07

unpleasantness of the previous days behind them.

24:11

Doug had to give a talk at the conference that afternoon.

24:13

In the morning, he and Kelly decided

24:16

to visit a famous Barcelona cathedral. Now,

24:19

it would seem like too much bad luck to

24:21

get robbed again, but... This

24:24

wasn't a decoy wallet. It was the real thing,

24:26

with all the cash that Doug's brother had

24:32

wired him from the United States. Something

24:37

snapped inside the 57-year-old neuroscientist. He

24:39

was done being used as a portable ATM by European

24:54

thieves. I shot

24:56

my arm back. The robber

24:59

hadn't gotten far. He was right

25:01

behind Doug. He started to turn

25:04

and I snagged him in the crook of my arm. He

25:07

had the robber around the neck. Now

25:10

what? Doug didn't

25:12

have to ask himself the question. His

25:15

arm seemed to know what to do. I

25:19

flipped him over my hip to

25:21

the ground on the pavement and jumped on his back and

25:24

put him in a chokehold. And

25:26

then this thought bubbles up to my cerebral cortex. What

25:30

are you doing? If you're robbed,

25:32

you should give him the money. But

25:34

I was sort of just like a spectator in this whole

25:36

thing. Kelly,

25:39

who was a couple of pieces in front of Doug,

25:42

turned around to see something she never expected

25:44

to see in all her life. Wild

25:48

red rage from

25:50

her father. And

25:53

I see my dad choking this

25:55

random person. He has this young

25:57

guy in a headlock.

26:00

And I was just looking at him like, what is going

26:02

on? And I hear

26:04

my dad yell, my wallet. And

26:07

when he says my wallet, I knew instantly

26:10

what had happened. Somebody had pickpocketed

26:13

him again. So I'm on

26:15

the ground with this guy, and he's in his 20s. I'm

26:18

just thinking back to watching my kids wrestle. And

26:21

I'm trying to do what they do. I'm thinking hip control,

26:23

I got to keep this down, keep him pinned. And I

26:25

yell, call the police, call the police, I've got him. And

26:29

there's no reply. And

26:32

then, from my perspective on the ground,

26:34

all I saw were men's feet circling

26:37

around me. And

26:39

I then realized they were all part of the gang. The

26:42

thief somehow managed to fling Doug's

26:44

wallet toward an accomplice. It

26:47

was now Kelly's turn to do something crazy.

26:51

The next thing I see is a woman's hand flying

26:53

through the air, and I recognize it as Kelly. Kelly

26:56

was captain of the Ultimate Frisbee team at

26:58

that time, and she's doing a full-on layout

27:00

on a solid concrete to deflect the disc,

27:02

you know, and taps the wallet

27:04

into my outstretched right hand. And

27:09

I sort of jump up to my feet, and

27:12

I'm looking around like, okay, now what? And

27:14

I see these big guys, and I watch,

27:17

I follow the gaze of one of these

27:19

guys. I follow his eyes as he looks

27:21

down at the ground, and I see

27:23

that he sees my dad's blackberry.

27:26

And as I'm locking eyes with him, I

27:29

jumped on my dad's blackberry, just like a

27:31

football player would like grab a football or

27:33

something, which is a funny image to me

27:35

because it was just a blackberry. So I'm

27:38

like on the ground hugging this

27:40

little blackberry, and I'm like, dad,

27:42

I got your phone. And

27:46

I'm yelling because there's now a circle of men

27:48

around me, and I can see through their feet,

27:50

there's a circle of men around my father as

27:53

well. And

27:56

he has his wallet, and he knew

27:59

the next time I saw him. move and that was

28:01

to let the guy go. That's

28:03

neuroscientist two, pickpockets

28:06

one. When

28:10

I let the band go that I had in

28:12

the choke hold, he scooted away

28:14

on his back, kind of like a, on his

28:16

butt, sort of like a crab. And he pointed

28:18

at me going crazy man, crazy man. And

28:21

now I'm staring eye to eye with like

28:23

the ringleader and all these

28:26

other guys. And you know, so what am I going to

28:28

do now? I had

28:30

so much adrenaline going, which I've never felt before.

28:33

I was ready to throw him into his accomplices

28:35

and knock him down the steps into the Metro

28:37

station. And there was no question whether I could

28:39

do that or not. And

28:45

then, yeah, really pretty well dressed elderly

28:47

man with a cane just sort of

28:51

walks up really casually and said,

28:53

yeah, he's no crazy. Go. And

28:58

they all fled, you know, like a bunch of

29:01

birds leaving a telephone wire or something.

29:03

They were just like, poof. And I'm just

29:06

sort of like trying to process it all. Like

29:08

what just happened? Oh, my dad must be a

29:10

spy. This is of course. And he just like

29:12

did some spy things when that guy stole his

29:14

wallet. He's not really a scientist at

29:16

all. Doug

29:18

and Kelly stumbled away from the scene and

29:21

their hearts were racing. My

29:24

dad says, you know, we

29:27

have to get a knife. And I

29:29

was like, what? OK, now

29:31

I'm concerned. That's like a horrible idea on

29:33

multiple levels. That's a really bad idea. You

29:35

know, and I couldn't believe that my father,

29:37

who I had only ever seen use knives

29:41

for like cutting vegetables or

29:43

firewood, was now suggesting like

29:45

we need to go get a weapon. And I

29:47

was sort of like, oh, OK, I need to

29:49

step in. And the decision making process. That's insane.

29:51

We're not getting a knife. Doug

29:54

was sure that they were being tracked by members of

29:56

the street gang. And

29:58

it turns out. he was not

30:00

being paranoid. He and Kelly

30:03

really were being followed. Now

30:05

I'm turned into a scene out of like a spy

30:07

movie. We're

30:10

running down back

30:13

alleys. We're running through restaurants, going

30:15

into shops, going in one

30:18

door, out the back door. And so

30:20

we go into a

30:22

different shop and I bought this like skirt

30:24

so we could try and change clothing, which is

30:26

really bizarre. And it's funny that we thought that

30:28

would help. And we get out of

30:31

the store and

30:33

I remember seeing another person

30:35

walking towards us on one side of the street

30:37

and then a group of men walking towards us

30:39

on the other side. And my dad

30:41

just goes, we need to cross the

30:43

street. Ready, go.

30:45

Like no conversation. And we just

30:47

started booking it across this crowded

30:51

road. And we run across the street.

30:53

We realized these people are following us

30:55

for sure. We

30:58

see them now crossing the crosswalk to come to

31:00

our side of the street again. And

31:03

we're like, what do we do? And

31:05

he goes, let's get a taxi. And we run

31:07

into the street and he like hits

31:09

the hood of a taxi driving by, you know, and he's like,

31:11

we need to get in. When

31:14

they got out of the taxi, they still

31:17

hadn't shaken the robbers. They

31:19

jumped in another cab and asked the

31:21

driver to get them the hell out of Barcelona. Ben

31:25

went to the next

31:27

city. With

31:30

this 170 year old cab fare, I still

31:32

remember. It

31:39

was here, far outside of Barcelona,

31:42

that Doug's heart rate started to slow.

31:45

And as his normal logical brain

31:47

came back online, he

31:49

couldn't believe what he had just done. He's

31:52

like, I should have given them my wallet. That's crazy. Why

31:55

did I do that? Why was I doing that? Like never

31:57

do that. If this ever happens to you again, you know,

31:59

give me your wallet. Doug's

32:01

behavior disturbed him as a father,

32:04

but it also disturbed him as a neuroscientist who

32:06

thought he had a good handle on how the

32:08

brain worked, on how his own brain

32:10

worked. From

32:12

a neuroscience perspective, how does this happen

32:14

that you can instantly do this aggression

32:17

without even being aware and it's all

32:20

unconscious? If something in

32:22

my environment could cause me

32:24

to suddenly risk life and limb

32:26

with no conscious thought,

32:29

I wanted to understand how that worked at a

32:31

neuroscience level, what's going on in the brain. The

32:35

question again was why evolution, which has

32:37

sculpted our brains and bodies to be

32:39

skilled survival machines, would preserve

32:41

systems in the brain that cause us

32:43

to act with unthinking haste and violence.

32:47

Haste and violence that can place our

32:49

own lives at great risk. Doug

32:52

wrote a book as he pondered this question. It's

32:55

called Why We Snap, understanding

32:58

the rage circuit in your brain. He

33:00

realized that the answer lay in the

33:02

question itself. It

33:05

was all about speed. The

33:07

conscious brain is too

33:10

slow and it doesn't

33:12

have the capacity. So when you're faced with a sudden

33:14

threat, like a fist thrown

33:16

to your chin, you have

33:18

to respond faster

33:21

than the conscious brain can handle

33:23

it. There are lots of things that

33:25

can be done slowly, but

33:27

surviving an immediate threat is

33:29

not one of them. When you're

33:31

dealing with a predator or some other imminent

33:34

danger, you have to act

33:36

fast. So nature

33:39

has developed high speed

33:42

pathways to the

33:44

amygdala. All our senses go there

33:46

before they go to the cortex, which is where

33:48

we have consciousness. And that's so

33:50

you can have this rapid response to a real

33:52

threat. Now,

33:55

we've all experienced this. You're on

33:58

a basketball court in a wayward battle. basketball

34:00

comes towards you and you duck and turn and

34:02

you bat it away and then you go,

34:04

what was that? Your

34:07

unconscious mind detected, because the visual input went

34:09

first to your amygdala, that something was in

34:11

your visual space that shouldn't be there. Sort

34:14

of like a motion detector. But not

34:17

only that, then put you on a very

34:19

definitive course with a complex behavior. You think

34:21

about the behavior where you turn and you

34:23

intersect this thing and you bat it

34:25

away. Visual

34:28

thought isn't just unhelpful when that basketball

34:30

is hurtling toward you. It's

34:33

actually counterproductive. Being

34:35

deliberate can end up getting you smashed

34:38

in the face. But

34:40

short-circuiting logic creates dangers, especially

34:43

when you're in the grip of an

34:45

emotion-like rage. You can

34:47

literally stop thinking about your arm as your

34:49

arm. It becomes a weapon that

34:51

can be wielded, deployed, sacrificed.

34:56

The brain's threat detection mechanism, which

34:59

is highly controlled, to engage in a

35:02

violent, aggressive interaction,

35:04

risks life and limb. Most

35:07

of the time, we are well-served by

35:10

being logical and deliberate. But

35:12

on rare occasions, it's

35:14

helpful to act with unthinking haste.

35:17

The operative word here is rare.

35:21

What Doug has found is that

35:23

wild, red rage erupts in very

35:25

specific situations, often

35:27

when you're defending your most vital

35:29

interests. The

35:32

brain controls this

35:35

response so that it's only tripped by

35:37

very specific triggers. Doug

35:39

says most of these triggers are related to

35:41

our basic needs. For example,

35:43

you can easily imagine an animal

35:45

or a human reacting with protective rage

35:48

when its own life is in

35:50

danger. Another

35:57

thing most animals will do? Protect

35:59

their young. You know the

36:01

rule, never get between a mama bear and her

36:03

cub. And while you're at

36:05

it, don't try to steal her dinner.

36:08

Resources. That was the other thing that was tripped

36:11

when my wallet got snagged. Even

36:13

a family puppy will snap at your hand if you get

36:15

too close to the dish. The

36:17

list goes on. Don't try to

36:19

take my mate. Don't encroach on

36:21

my territory. Don't corner me.

36:24

If an animal is trapped, it will

36:26

use aggression to break free. I mean, an animal

36:29

will trap and chew its leg off. But

36:31

so will a human. These

36:34

triggers remind us of a truth we cannot avoid.

36:37

Humans, at the end of the day, are

36:39

animals. But

36:44

we're also more complicated than this list may suggest.

36:48

One story that made an impression on Doug

36:50

involved a man named Ray Young. He

36:53

was 67 years old and lived in

36:55

Silver Spring, Maryland, where Doug lived too.

36:58

Ray was waiting his turn at a post office one

37:00

day when he saw what he thought

37:02

was another customer cut the line. The

37:06

next thing that happened was unbelievable. He pulled out

37:08

a knife and started knifing the guy viciously. I

37:11

went to many of his trials and,

37:15

you know, he had no

37:17

record of violence, no

37:20

arrest record, is

37:22

completely out of character. Ray

37:24

snapped because he was defending something

37:27

that is of vital importance to humans. Order

37:31

in society. This guy broke the rules. He cut in

37:34

line. We all depend on a functioning social

37:36

order. A stable rule-following

37:38

society is as essential to our

37:41

survival as food and shelter. We're

37:44

willing to fight to maintain such

37:46

order. In social

37:48

animals, in order to maintain

37:51

order following the rules, aggression

37:53

is what is used. That's

37:55

still what we use. We use violence. Now,

37:59

it's not as if... Every threat

38:01

produces mindless rage. Plenty

38:03

of people see the social order breach or

38:05

get insulted and don't turn into

38:07

Rambo. The threshold

38:09

for snapping and the drivers of

38:12

violence can vary between people. So

38:15

sometimes the right thing to do is to be

38:18

the marine and charge after the threat and sometimes that's

38:20

gonna get you killed. But as a

38:22

species, the group as a whole

38:25

will survive cuz somebody's gonna do one

38:27

thing and somebody's gonna do something else. Doug

38:30

says stress is often a factor in sending

38:32

us over the edge. He

38:34

sees stress at play in just Cavender's

38:37

response to the armed robber. She

38:39

didn't scream and dig her hands into the attacker

38:41

when she first saw him. She

38:44

tried to appease him. She

38:47

had been enduring this for a while and

38:49

stress was building and it

38:51

tripped that trigger. The

38:54

resource trigger. She said that it

38:56

was the most valuable thing in her life that she

38:58

depended on for food and everything was her camera and

39:01

they weren't gonna get it. Now,

39:05

there is a wrong lesson you can draw from this

39:07

account of rage. You could say,

39:09

look, Jess lost it and because she

39:12

became enraged, she managed to save her

39:14

camera. Doug was furious at

39:16

being robbed and his rage allowed him to

39:18

take his wallet back from the Barcelona thieves.

39:21

These examples suggest rage always results

39:24

in good outcomes that you

39:26

would end up better off when you violently lose

39:28

your temper. What this

39:30

misses is that literally no one in their right

39:32

mind will tell you to attack a man with

39:34

a gun or to take on a

39:36

street gang in a foreign country. Risking

39:39

your life to save some money or

39:41

to protect a camera is a very

39:43

definition of foolishness. When

39:47

we come back, why you can't understand

39:49

the deep logic of blinding rage by

39:51

looking only at situations where things turn

39:53

out well for you. You're

39:58

listening to Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar

40:00

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is no safe like simply safe. This

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is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantu. Mohammed

42:16

Bouazizi was sick of the police

42:18

and their demands for bribes. He

42:21

was a produce seller in the city of

42:23

Sidi Bouazid in Tunisia, in North Africa. The

42:27

harassment felt endless. On

42:31

a Friday morning in December 2010, Mohammed

42:34

had an encounter with the police. Years

42:37

later, there are still varying accounts of

42:39

what happened. According to

42:41

some, a cop confiscated the scales

42:44

that Mohammed used to sell his

42:46

produce. Others

42:48

said an officer wouldn't let him set up his

42:50

stand. Some accounts

42:52

said Mohammed was slapped or perhaps kicked.

42:56

The street vendor did what citizens are supposed

42:58

to do. He went

43:00

to the authorities to protest

43:02

his mistreatment. But

43:04

when he got to the government building to lodge a

43:06

complaint, he was barred

43:09

from entry. Mohammed

43:12

was gripped by an intense feeling of

43:14

injustice. And

43:18

then, he snapped. He

43:21

doused himself with gasoline, standing

43:23

in front of the government building that had shut

43:25

the door on him. He

43:28

struck a match and

43:30

set himself ablaze. One

43:35

of the last things onlookers heard from him

43:37

were these words, How

43:39

do you expect me to make a living? By

43:45

the time the fire was doused and Mohammed

43:47

was rushed to a hospital, burns

43:49

covered 90% of his body.

43:53

He died a few weeks later. His

43:57

story shows the self-destructive power

44:00

of wild, red rage.

44:04

But it also reveals the

44:06

hidden logic of fury. Thousands

44:12

of Muhammad's fellow Tunisians showed up

44:14

at his funeral. On

44:16

social media, he was dubbed a martyr. Members

44:20

of the crowd shouted, Farewell,

44:23

Muhammad. We will avenge you. We

44:26

weep for you today. We will

44:28

make those who caused your death, weep. Ten

44:42

days after Muhammad's death, with

44:44

escalating protests around the country,

44:46

the president of Tunisia ended

44:49

a 23-year autocratic reign and

44:51

fled the country. Within

44:53

weeks, protests in Tunisia spread

44:56

to other Arab countries in

44:58

what came to be known as the Arab Spring.

45:01

It is the end of an era in Tunisia.

45:04

President Hosni Mubarak has stepped

45:06

down. Neuroscientist

45:12

Doug Fields has found that we are

45:15

capable of fury when we

45:17

want to defend our lives or protect family

45:19

or guard resources. Rage

45:22

can be triggered when we want

45:24

to maintain the social order. It

45:27

also serves another useful purpose.

45:31

Rage acts as a

45:33

signaling device. If

45:35

you look at the long history of

45:37

social protests, it's just clear that powerful

45:39

emotions like anger and rage have a

45:42

huge and have had a huge role

45:44

to play in galvanizing

45:46

people, motivating them, bringing

45:48

them together in movements

45:50

towards increased change. Justice.

46:00

University of Oxford. Amiya

46:02

recognizes that rage does have

46:04

costs, but she wants

46:06

us to remember that it

46:08

can be useful to communities, causes,

46:10

and individuals. Anger can

46:12

play this clarifying role for

46:15

myself, so it can help me

46:17

understand what's going on, right?

46:19

It can make me come to certain kinds of

46:22

moral and political realizations I didn't

46:24

have before I come to realize

46:26

there's actually an injustice at work.

46:32

The benefits of anger don't stop with

46:34

the clarity it brings to us as

46:36

individuals. Getting angry

46:39

can act as a certain kind of

46:41

warning signal to other people, and in

46:44

fact, there's a lot of social-psychological evidence

46:47

that suggests that getting angry can

46:49

be an effective means

46:51

of changing other people's behavior, right?

46:55

Counter to the kind of standard

46:57

liberal understanding where calm group deliberation

46:59

is the only way to get

47:01

people to change, actually getting angry

47:03

sometimes is an effective social signal

47:05

to motivate other people. In

47:08

fact, Amiya argues, it's important

47:10

when we talk about fury to

47:12

distinguish between what might be counterproductive or

47:14

even harmful to individuals in the short

47:17

run and the usefulness of

47:19

that fury to movements,

47:21

groups, and causes. Individual

47:24

anger can often spread

47:26

and become communal anger

47:28

and collective anger and

47:31

collective anger has extraordinary forms.

47:38

She asked me to think of an example in

47:40

an interpersonal setting. Imagine

47:42

the scenario, you're in a

47:44

romantic relationship and your partner cheats

47:46

on you. I mean,

47:48

it might be that getting angry

47:50

at your cheating

47:53

lover just encourages that cheating lover to

47:55

cheat more and if your lover

47:57

were to say to you, well, you shouldn't get

47:59

angry. angry at me because it just makes me cheat more.

48:01

I mean, that's an

48:04

infuriating response. And it's infuriating

48:06

because it treats

48:08

your anger as just an instrument,

48:10

an instrument for encouraging or discouraging

48:13

his or her behavior. Whereas

48:15

in fact, anger, like other

48:17

moral emotions, is something that makes

48:20

a claim about the world. An

48:24

angry spouse does more than show

48:26

her displeasure at infidelity. She's

48:29

also sending a signal about the kind

48:31

of behavior we think is appropriate in

48:33

a society, in interpersonal relationships. Her

48:36

anger sends a message to

48:39

other spouses. Obviously,

48:45

this is not happening at a conscious level. Rage

48:48

can prompt you to take a stand about something

48:51

and make you incur personal costs. By

48:54

short-circuiting reason, it makes

48:57

you ignore those costs. Your

48:59

actions might be personally harmful, but

49:01

it can help the group to which you belong. This

49:05

is why natural selection might

49:07

conserve such behavior. We

49:09

have these circuits because we need them. We

49:11

have violence because unfortunately we need them. We

49:14

don't call it snapping when the outcome

49:16

is good. Then we call it heroism

49:19

or quick thinking. Rage

49:24

in fact might be one way that

49:26

nature gets us to prioritize the interests

49:28

of our groups over

49:30

our narrow self-interest. By

49:32

disabling logic and impairing reason, we can

49:35

be prompted to

49:37

do things that we would never do if we

49:40

were only looking out for ourselves. Somebody

49:43

violates a social norm and we become

49:45

angry. Again, anger prepares you to

49:47

fight. As we know, sometimes

49:49

these turn out tragically. People get

49:52

into a fight on the road and pull out a gun. Acting

49:58

in the interest of a group not

50:00

always the right or virtuous thing. Terrorist

50:03

organizations have long used rage as a

50:05

recruiting tool for new followers. The

50:08

anger of partisan politics can cause us

50:10

to think more about the well-being of

50:12

narrow groups like our political parties rather

50:15

than the well-being of larger groups like

50:18

our nation. Fury

50:20

can drive massacres, wars and

50:22

genocide. All

50:24

this leaves us in a bind. If we

50:27

were to eliminate rage or to logically determine

50:29

when to get angry, we lose

50:31

the speed and potency of sudden anger.

50:35

But when we allow our furies

50:37

to flare unchecked, we can cause

50:39

senseless damage to ourselves and others.

50:42

Many centuries ago, the philosopher

50:44

Aristotle said, anyone can

50:47

become angry. That is easy. But

50:49

to be angry with the right person, to

50:51

the right degree, at the right time,

50:54

for the right purpose and in the right way,

50:57

that is not easy. Hidden

51:14

Brain is produced by Hidden Brain Media. Our

51:17

audio production team includes Annie

51:19

Murphy-Paul, Christian Wong, Laura Correll,

51:21

Ryan Katz, Autumn Barnes, Andrew

51:24

Chadwick and Nick Woodbury. Audio

51:26

mix on today's episode by Rob Byers, John

51:29

Evans Evans and Michael Raphael of

51:31

Final Final V2. Tara

51:33

Boyle is our executive producer. I'm

51:36

Hidden Brain's executive editor. Today's

51:41

show is the final episode in our

51:44

Emotions 2.0 series. Over

51:46

the past few weeks, we've talked about how group

51:48

dynamics shape the way we feel about our lives

51:50

and the world around us. We've

51:52

looked at the importance of ambivalence and the

51:54

complex emotion of pride. If

51:57

you missed any of the episodes in the series, be

51:59

sure to go back and check them out

52:01

on our podcast or on our

52:03

website, hiddenbrain.org. If

52:05

you want even more Hidden Brain after you're

52:07

done with that, please subscribe to our newsletter.

52:10

In each issue, we bring you interesting ideas

52:12

and research on human behavior, along with a

52:14

brain teaser and a moment of joy. You

52:18

can subscribe at

52:20

news.hiddenbrain.org. That's

52:22

news.hidden brain dot

52:24

org. I'm

52:28

Shankar Vedantam. See you soon. Your

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