Quartz: Our brains want us to keep calm. But to make a change, we need to keep angry

Quartz November 21 2016

These days, a lot of people are thinking about how best to make a change in the world. Some might imagine that it’s best to try to rise above emotions like anger and fear and focus on taking action. But science suggests that embracing feelings of frustration can actually help you make an impact.

When it comes to critical conversations about the complex and important questions of our time—morality, rights, justice, ethics, and the sustainability of our planet—our emotional states impact our likelihood to act. From fear to love, a cocktail of neurochemicals both motivate and disable our bodies and minds. And sometimes, embracing frustration instead of going with the flow is what’s needed to make a change in the world.